Back from China
by LadyScience
Summary: What if the failed wedding never happened? What if Ranma and Akane had to mentally deal with the events that took place at Jusenkyo? Ranma and Akane try to figure out how to help each other through their fears and Ranma is more affected by the trip than anyone suspects.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - **I of course do not own Ranma 1/2 and do not profit from this piece.

I started this after finishing the manga for the second time and once again being frustrated by the ending. I have always wanted Ranma and Akane to be more affected by the Saffron arc and mature a little as a result of their ordeal (can't have them mature too much or they wouldn't quite be the characters we know and love). So for my story I have picked up after the group returned from China with Akane after her near death. There is no failed wedding and in my head canon there is no cure for Ranma. I hope you enjoy my take on the characters. I am not an aspiring writer, I just did this for fun.

Chapter 1 - Return from Jusenkyo

Ranma was sitting on the porch staring out at the koi pond. They had returned from Jusenkyo 2 weeks ago and Akane was finally feeling more like herself again. She had been weak for several days while they were in China and Ranma often thought about the first day she was able to get out of bed. She had found him staring at the cursed training grounds, all the pools were flooded, too dangerous to touch. Who knows what kind of monster the victim would become. There was no way to for him to be cured and she had tried to comfort him. Since returning home the family had mostly left him alone. Likely due to the fact he glared angrily at anyone who spoke to him. Akane thought he was mad about not being able to be all-man again and so did everyone else among his family and friends. That wasn't quite it, it was just simply easier to let everyone think that way. He was disappointed but the anger over his curse had faded long ago. While looking at the flooded pools he had begun to accept that he might never be rid of his female side, it was just a part of him now. He had occasionally visited Akane while she recovered but so far they hadn't talked about her near death. The family were all incredibly grateful that she was brought home safely, however he couldn't truly feel the same and their fawning just made it worse. She had died in his arms, he was sure of it and had no idea how she manage to come back to him. The feeling of loss was so overwhelming that it hadn't left him yet; however it was gradually being replaced by guilt. If Akane had never met him, if Pop hadn't drug him all over China training, if… if …. So many ifs. He could barely look at her. Even Shampoo and Ukyo had tried to cheer him up but offers of various types of comfort hadn't been met with welcome. Hell he barely remembered their visits, he was probably rude to them but couldn't bring himself to care. Shampoo had threatened Akane while she was shrunk, even though she was under the control of Kiima, he doubted he would ever be able to forgive Shampoo.

The only thing Ranma found that numbed him a little was training. He spent hours in the dojo running through katas, then kicks, then punches. The faster he could force himself to move the less he became trapped in his thoughts. There was another thought that kept him from talking to Akane, he was scared. Even if this danger was past, there was always going to be another. Another challenger, another plot or another woman out to hurt her. He didn't like the idea but once the thoughts had intruded his mind he knew what he had to do. He had to train her. He felt like he was losing track of the number of times in the past year she had been kidnapped. This last time she was not only hurt but ….

His shoulders sagged further. He had to stop thinking about losing her and reminded himself she was upstairs in her room talking to Nabiki. She was alive and getting back to normal.

Standing up and walking out toward the pond, he could look up at her window. He watched for a few minutes silently hoping she might look out. When she didn't and he walked once again to the dojo. He hadn't pulled out blocks to break in a long time. He could break walls, blocks were pretty elementary to him. But while he broke them he thought about all the times he had watched Akane breaking them, usually when she was mad at him. At that he actually stopped and the barest hint of a smile tried to form. He knew how to interact with her when she was violent. He had no clue what to do these days. He wanted to be nicer to her. He wanted to fight less. She had tried to sacrifice her life for his and he didn't want it ever happen again. He had sat holding her body after falling down into the source waters of Jusenkyo. He knew he had cried, he almost never cried, but the tears wouldn't stop that day. His throat was constricting just thinking about it.

"You are going to have to talk to him you know." Nabiki was sitting on Akane's desk chair with her legs crossed looking bored. Akane knew she really wasn't. Nabiki spent many hours visiting in her room the first week she was back. Her family had barely let her leave her room. Nabiki flipped her hair and looked right at Akane. "If I had a fiance who let me get hurt, he would be groveling and a small clutch of flowers would never earn my forgiveness." Akane glanced at the little vase of flowers on her desk. She didn't know why but she hadn't told the family everything that happened. She didn't want to admit that she was caught off guard when she was taken. She also hated to think about how Ranma's life had been truly in danger. The events at Jusenkyo had remained rather personal for her.

"Ranma was so close to his cure. You should have seen his face when he was looking at all the flooded pools." She was hurt that he hadn't visited much but neither of them seemed to want to talk about the trip yet. "If the family would only be nicer to him, he will get back to being himself."

"Humph, it doesn't matter what we say or do. He just looks like he wants to kill everything he sees. It has been better to stay away from him. He doesn't even eat with us. Kasumi just leaves meals outside the dojo. At least he stopped sleeping in there."

Akane's eyes suddenly went wide. If I can show him I am strong enough to start training again, then maybe his sullen mood will start to go away. She tried to get back to normal every chance she could. So far she hadn't been allowed to go out jogging or to even enter the dojo, although she argued everyday with her father about that fact. Akane had sneaked her weights in her room and was using them whenever people actually left her alone. At night she made sure her curtains were closed and turned on a small light to at least do some basic stretches. They also needed to talk without the risk of interruption. Most nights when she dreamed she felt like she was falling and Ranma was holding her and yelling that he loved her. She never knew if this was just all in her head or if it actually happened. She hoped that Ranma might visit at night, he was usually more comfortable sneaking in at night to say something important. Like the time she hurt her leg and had to stay in the hospital or when their fathers had been fighting. She figured that it was just to avoid anyone seeing him and accusing him of trying to do something inappropriate. Which happened when you have fathers and sisters who seemed to sneak around trying to catch that sort of thing. Their motives never seemed to be to stop them rather to just have an excuse to force them to marry. Well technically he had sneaked in but not to talk to her. She would think about that later. She didn't want to accidentally say something in front of Nabiki.

"What are you thinking little sister?" Nabiki eyed her suspiciously. Akane had an idea she was sure of it. With a half-smile she thought _well finally_.

"Nabiki, I will pay you 5000 yen to get the family to go out and do something tonight. Tell them I need less visitors and would like to sleep and to just leave Ranma alone. I know you can do it without them thinking they would be abandoning me."

"What are you up to? Going to properly thank Ranma for bringing you back?"

Akane blushed. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" The book in her hand went flying across the room.

"Guess you didn't leave the violence in China. " Nabiki grabbed Akane's wallet from her desk. "5000 huh? Normally a conspiracy like this would cost you more but you get the recovering patient discount"

"Gee thanks."

"Think nothing of it. I will keep them away for 2 hours. Make sure to finish up before we get back."

Akane just sat and growled at Nabiki's back while she walked out the door. After Nabiki was gone she calmed herself down and began to work out the best way to approach Ranma. Her dreams were the same every night, she was falling with Ranma. He was screaming at her to hold on and not to die and every night he screamed "I love you". She wanted to believe he had actually said that but she knew it could be just a dream. Two days after they returned she woke up after the dream and heard soft snoring. Glancing towards the sound she saw Ranma asleep on her floor. The size wasn't quite right for him and she finally realized that he was in his girl form. Akane had learned over the past year that girl-type Ranma didn't snore as loud as boy-type. She wondered why he was doing this and why it had stopped. It was one of the many things they needed to talk about.

On her way downstairs Nabiki stopped by her room to grab the circus tickets she had won in a card game she had hosted a few days ago.

"It just doesn't seem right to go to the circus without Akane."

Nabiki calmly looked at her father while he was talking. "I already asked her, I caught her lifting weights and she had tired herself out," laughing as she told everyone. It was only a little lie. Akane didn't actually know that her sister knew about the weights in her room. "She is going to be fine and frankly Akane has never liked us smothering her when she gets sick."

"That's true father, remember when she was little and it was so hard to keep her in bed whenever she was sick. If she is actually tired we should leave her alone." Kasumi knew Akane so well and was sure that a couple hours of quiet would be good for her. Although she suspected something else was going on, she knew if Ranma and Akane were here alone they might have a chance to talk to each other. She was actually more worried about Ranma. He had never been so surly towards her. In fact he was usually respectful towards her but even though he grumbled a thank you for any help she gave him, he never smiled. One night that she had gone to check on both of them she found that Ranma wasn't in the spare bedroom on his futon, worried further she went to check on Akane and could hear soft snoring through the door. She very quietly had peeked in to find Akane resting quietly and Ranma in his girl form on the floor. Both looked like they were sleeping well and she didn't disturb them. Frankly with how embarrassed both of them got at the mere mention of kissing, she wasn't worried that they would do anything inappropriate. They needed to get through this and recover both mentally and physically and then maybe they could actually get closer and show their feelings. "I think I would really like to go, father." Soun Tendo had always had trouble telling his oldest daughter no. She did so much for the family since his wife had died and asked for so little in return.

Nabiki knew with Kasumi's support it was a done deal. Her older sister could sweetly talk her father into anything.

Genma nodded, "I'll go make Ranma come with us. The boy needs to get over not being cured, maybe a trip out will finally do him some good."

Nabiki caught a quick movement near the brushes outside. "Ha, no way. This is a chance for the rest of us to have fun and Ranma will only ruin it. He has no intention of being kind to any of us, it doesn't matter what we say or do. I for one want a break from it." Nabiki's eyes had hardened and she dared Genma to argue with her. A look crossed Genma face and she wondered if he truly thought Ranma would ever be the same.

"Ranma is in the dojo again anyway. Maybe all the training he is doing will eventually bring him out of it." With that Soun turned to get ready to leave.

Nabiki silently wished Akane good luck and followed the rest.

Ranma was not in the dojo. He was going to go inside and try again to face Akane and had overheard the plans to go out. Jumping into the nearest bush he hoped no one saw or heard him. He had no desire to be surrounded by happy people having fun. Guilt settled over him again, he was making their lives miserable and couldn't seem to stop.

After they left he entered the house and went to the kitchen. Maybe Akane would like some tea and it would give him something to do while he tried to talk to her. He was going to mess it up. He always seemed to. All he knew is that he had to find a way to tell her …. D_amn you Ranma, you can jump off buildings, cliffs and into what felt like hell itself to get to her but you can't tell her why. COWARD._

He knocked on her door; frowning when there was no answer. She had told Nabiki she was tired. She must be asleep. _I'll just peek in to see if she is ok_, he opened the door and looked in. He just wanted to check on her.

The first week he would sneak into her room late at night and fall asleep on the floor of her bedroom but always as his female side. He knew that if she found him she would punish his female side less than his male side. He (she) was really careful to leave before her fiance might wake up. A couple of the nights she thought she heard Akane wake up in middle of the night but since she didn't get hit or literally kicked out, she assumed she either hadn't seen her or was just imaging things. He stopped after a while and started sleeping in the dojo, although he would find himself hanging outside her window. Seeing her sleep had been reassuring enough that the nightmares weren't coming every time he closed his eyes. Sleeping in her room had been for her protection, at least that is what he told himself, but he noticed that he slept a little better too. Three days ago she must have seen him checking on her because she had started closing her curtains. She probably thought he was a pervert, one of her favorite insults for him. Glancing at the bed he saw it was made. He opened the door a little wider and dropped the tea cups. Her curtains were blowing with the breeze… her window was open. His heart dropped to his feet and his mouth went dry. She was gone again. He raced to the window and looked out but she wasn't out there. His heart was racing, his breathing was very rapid and his throat was tight again. Jumping out the window he used the lower roof to jump to the upper one. He scanned the area quickly looking for anything out of place. That is when he saw it, the light was on in the dojo. He was sure he hadn't left it on. Anger quickly replaced fear. She had sneaked out to train. He knew she frequently complained that she wanted to. He was moving quickly toward the dojo roof. She set this up. _She probably even counted on me being gone. That idiot._

He tore the door open and started to yell at her for whatever idiotic thing she was doing. Breaking bricks he assumed. "AKANE, YOU IDIOT!" But he stopped and stared. "A_kan_e?" She was in her gi but she was sitting on her knees in front of the little sign at the back. He took a deep breath, walked to her and sat down with his legs crossed. "What are you doing out here?" He was ready to argue with her. Ready to talk her out of whatever insane idea she had cooked up.

"I came out to find you." She hadn't looked at him yet. He shifted a little so that he could face her better but he wasn't completely in front of her. He want to be able to look away if he had to.

"Why? Nobody wants to be around me."

Akane looked at Ramna finally. _He is being grumpy, maybe I wouldn't have to see the sadness and guilt in his eyes_. She might be able to get through this.

"I want to talk about Jusenkyo." There is was. She had worked on several ways to approach this but suddenly being direct seemed like the best one.

Ranma took a deep breath and sighed. "Yeah I guess we have to eventually. What do you want to talk about?" He was sure she was going to say that he should have been less reckless. Or maybe that he shouldn't give up on a cure. What she eventually said surprised him.

"I'm sorry. I was mad at myself and worried about you. I let my guard down and that lousy, stupid bird man got me. By the time I sensed the danger it was too late."

"What? Akane! They should have been in China. They took you to get to me. It is my fault AGAIN that you were in danger."

"Again?" This was the guilt she had seen so many times in his eyes and she was tired of seeing it there. "Look at me." She put on her sternest face. "Look at me NOW!"

Ranma looked up wide eyed and shocked. She was angry. He knew his face was starting to look angry too. Shit, they were going to fight. _I don't know how to stop it._ "WHAT?"

"You idiot, they took me because they knew it would work, they were desperate. THEY took me. IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT."

"THEY TOOK YOU BECAUSE THEY KNEW HOW IMPORTANT YOU ARE TO ME!" Ranma froze and looked away. Normally he would immediately try to take the words back. This time he couldn't. Maybe she would now understand that he was dangerous for her. Her life would be better if they weren't engaged. He couldn't bring himself to call off the engagement but maybe if she did it would be easier. _COWARD!_

"I know, they found the picture of me that you were carrying in your shirt." was all she quietly said causing him to blush deeply. "Ranma, why were you sleeping in my room last week?"

This was not going how he expected at all. Everything she said was catching him off guard. They both sat there quietly for a few minutes.

"Umm… I … I … you knew about that?" She simply nodded. He was trying to find the best way to say why without getting in trouble. "I don't know, but it was the only way I felt less worried. I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me."

"I... um… I'm not mad. It's not like you tried anything funny."

"Why would I try something funny? It's not like…" He managed to stop himself, he couldn't make her angry. He took a deep breath and tried again. "That wasn't why I was there. I was scared you would disappear or that you weren't really okay. "

"Ranma!" Akane's eyes were wide. "I am okay because of you."

"YOU WERE ALMOST DEAD BECAUSE OF ME!"

"YOU IDIOT I CHOOSE TO DO WHAT I DID, I COULDN'T STAND BY WATCH YOU POSSIBLY DIE."

They stared away from each other for a longtime, each waiting for the other to say something. Ranma knew he had to calm down, he would just rather fight. It was easier to fight because he never stopped to think about what he was doing or saying.

"You should have stayed back." Ranma finally said.

Akane felt tears forming. "ARE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO SAY THAT I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAVED YOU?" She suddenly stopped. Ranma was crying. She had only seen him cry a few times and all of them when he thought she was hurt or cursed. "Ranma?"

"YOU DON'T GET IT. I HELD YOUR BODY. YOU WERE DEAD IN MY ARMS. I DIDN'T THINK I HAD BEEN ABLE TO SAVE YOU. NOTHING MATTERED ANYMORE." Tears fell down his face. Where had that come from? He hadn't even admitted that to himself.

He loved her, he had to, why else would he say something like that? She had mostly known but wanted to hear him say it out loud. She thought he had said it when he was struggling to save her in China. Her plan tonight was to get him to admit it. She thought it would make things better. She now understood that wasn't what would. He didn't need to say it. He needed to hear it. She had heard it often from her family, he hadn't. His father thought that hardship built character and made him manly and although his mother loved him she was ready to help him commit seppuku if he failed to become a man among men.

She stopped thinking and acted. To hell with the consequences. She leaned forward and grabbed his head in her hands forcing him to look right at her. "Ranma I didn't want to lose you either, I had to try to do something because …" she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "because I love you." Her world twisted, she wasn't facing the same way anymore. It took her a couple of seconds to orient herself, she was in Ranma's lap, one of his arms under her shoulders and the other around her waist. Damn he was fast. She was never going to quite get used to that.

He was felt like he was back at the source waters, holding her after she had woken up. He had desperately wanted to kiss her but didn't. He knew everyone was watching then, but it was only her here now. "I want to kiss you." His voice was barely above a whisper. Her fingers touched his cheek and then slide to his neck, tightening ever so slightly. That was all the approval he needed, leaning down his lips met hers. The kiss continued tenderly, then Ranma deepened the kiss a little and held her tighter. As they parted he felt a smile form, it seemed almost foreign on his face.

Akane smiled up at him. She was debating getting him to kiss her again. It had been really nice. But as she watched he slowly got a funny look on his face. His brow furrowed into a frown. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing"

She scowled at him, "Can't you just tell me? I think we already got through the hardest part of the conversation. Which is pretty surprising for us."

"That is the problem. Nothing is wrong. No camera flash. No father's running in. No wedding banner suddenly appearing. How do they do that anyway? No pain from being hit."

Akane laughed. "I paid Nabiki to get the family away from the house for 2 hours. So that I could talk to you."

He smiled again. "Well you are smarter than I am. I just kept trying to work up the nerve to come in your window after they had gone to bed and talk to you but the farthest I got was sleeping in there."

She laughed for a few minutes and agreed whole-heartedly that she was definitely smarter. He decided that he could think of a better way to shut her up now and it was a lot more fun than insulting her. He smiled cockily at her and she had about half a second to go wide eyed before he stopped her mouth with his. His guilt wasn't gone but his heart felt lighter than it had in weeks. Now he just had to figure out how to train her without hurting her. She always wanted him to fight back when she tried to spar with him but she needed to learn that speed was as important as strength. She wasn't going to like that.

I have more chapters written and if there is some interest I will post them. This is my first time posting here. I wrote this primarily for myself and wasn't sure if I would ever bother sharing it. R&R please.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning the fight was getting louder. It had been going on for several minutes and now Ranma was sailing through the air towards the koi pond. He hit with a familiar splash and transformed to his girl side. He barely took notice anymore, and as such he was out and charging back to the table immediately. He could hear Akane's voice above all the others. "How will I ever get my strength back if I don't train?" She was sick of rest, of being bored and worse yet she was sick and tired of seeing the looks on everyone's face around her. She wanted to get back to normal. Kasumi thought she needed more rest and good gracious more tea. Nabiki was switching sides to whoever she could provoke the most. Genma blamed Ranma for spending so much time in the dojo and ignoring his fiancé. Ranma sat quickly down next to Akane again and she felt the slightest touch of his, well actually her, hand and then it was gone. Fights at the Tendo residence were normal but this one was new. Akane and Ranma were on the same side although no one really seemed to figure it out yet. As soon as Akane had mentioned training the yelling started.

Ranma leaned back with _her_ hands behind _her _head. "I am going to train her. I am going to teach her better alertness, speed and defense. Maybe if she had been taught more than basics she would have been able to defend herself better when trouble came for her." Akane glared at him, even though they had planned this she still hated to hear it.

The night before in the dojo they had continued talking. Talking came a little easier once they both realized that they were trying to say the same thing. If Akane could better defend herself against attackers, would be suitors and even his other fiancés, then both of them would feel better.

Soun stared wide-eyed at Ranma while Genma shouted "No way. You can't train her without hurting her."

"Gee Pop all I have to do is not train her the way you trained me." Turning to Mr. Tendo, "I can keep her safe while we train. I figure if I can keep her safe in the middle of a battle I can keep her safe while training."

Akane started to lay out a training plan that would gradually get harder over the weeks to come. She had hated to admit the night before that Ranma was right. She needed to start over with basics. But she was sure she would get back on track quickly and be able to start working on mastering her skills.

"My son, as your master I cannot allow you to take on this student." Genma closed his eyes as if it were settled.

"Gee Pop considering I defeated Saffron, who was basically some kind of God. I think I have surpassed you and don't really need your approval." Ranma quickly grabbed the front of his father's shirt and pitched him into the pond. At least now it would be easier to ignore his father.

This was the first time the battle had been spoken of in front of the family. Genma had traveled to Jusenkyo with the others but had become enslaved by Shampoo early in the fight. He didn't really know what had happened. The table was very quiet while Akane's father and sisters processed this new information. Akane quickly explained, "I don't know if he was really a god but he was immortal. He could be reborn and was able to control fire. Except Ranma and the others interrupted his regeneration and he couldn't control the heat. Ranma fought so hard to save me. Maybe instead of arguing with us on this you could trust our judgment."

Ranme leaned over and whisper to Akane, "I am not sure if that helped or hurt our case."

Soun Tendo say quietly for several minutes and when he finally spoke it was with sadness. "You may train Akane, however you can only use those training methods that can be done in the dojo. I don't want her far away in the mountains training some nearly impossible new move."

Ranma quickly agreed and Akane looked frustrated. Nabiki calmly looked at her and said, "Take what you can little sister. Prove yourself in the dojo and maybe he will let you out play with the other little kids." Akane glowered at her sister. But Nabiki had a point, if they followed the rules then they could negotiate new rules later.

Akane stood up and left to get a kettle of hot water for Ranma. While she waited for the water to warm she thought about the plan they had made. The only thing she hadn't quite gotten Ranma to agree to was sparing with her. He still wouldn't consign to actually trying to land a punch on her. Hopefully over the next few weeks she could find a way to convince him that she needed to be taken seriously by him as well as those who might try to pick a fight.

Akane returned with the hot water and poured some on Ranma, since she was still mad at Genma she casually handed the kettle to Ranma and didn't bother returning Genma to his human state.

The panda held up a sign that read "Hand it over!"

Ranma's response was to stand and walk away with it into the yard. "If you want it, come and get it from me. If you can't get it from me within 10 minutes then you give up your argument against me training Akane."

Another sign appeared out of nowhere. "Don't be so cocky."

The panda charged first and Ranma jumped high over it. "One miss old man" The panda had already jumped to attack again and Ranma simply brought his fist up in the air and punched, resulting in a black and white blur that flew over the wall. "Second miss, man you seem slower than usual"

Akane was watching closely, as always. Genma was not slower, Ranma was faster. He was also calmer than usual. Typically he would rush in to attack as well. It was more like he was toying with his father. Had the fights at Jesenkyo and all his training afterwards actually made him stronger than his father? Akane had witnessed so many fights between Ranma and various challengers that she was used to his looks of anger and concentration. This new look hadn't lost the concentration, he was absolutely focused but he just didn't look angry. He look confident and not a false confidence like Kuno. This was the face of a man who had beaten much harder opponents. _I don't think Genma has notice yet, but he will soon._

Genma sat on the other side of the wall for a few seconds, something was different. There had been no growl, no yell, no nothing. Ranma just punched him. Could this fight actually be that boring for him? It was time to find out. Allowing his battle aura to fill him he began to enlarge.

Ranma heard the battle cry. He watched the wall closely and quickly realized that his father (in giant panda form) was starting to become visible beyond the wall. His eyes widen in shock. "Shit" His father had not used his enlargement aura against him before. Narrowing his focus he prepared to take on what was probably the most ridiculous thing this town had ever seen, a towering panda.

"6 mins left" cried Akane. She saw Ranma nod and then jump to the roof.

(Giant sign) "You still have a lot to learn…" Then swung at Ranma with the sign. Ranma evaded the attack and looked for a way to cancel the aura. Normally he would use cold water but water wasn't an option this time. Ranma had seen the aura several times before and knew it was only an illusion, which didn't make it much less difficult to deal with, but it did mean that his father couldn't really move much while using it. It also meant this was a test. Genma wasn't going to hold back. Continuing to evade the various attacks Ranma gradually made his way towards the wall where he suspected his father was hiding. He broke into a run and moved faster than the giant panda could track. Finally flipping off of the wall to the other side Ranma landed on his father's real body and using his legs flipped him over onto his back. Then quickly he bounce off landing on one hand and push himself further back.

_The brat has seen me use that too many times. He just isn't scared of it anymore. _The panda again jumped at Ranma claws out ready to strike. Ducking, Ranma brought his leg up to hit vulnerable spots. This only was effective at stopping Genma's attack. It didn't incapacitate him like it might a human. There was just too much fluff in the way. Pivoting and using the kettle as a weapon, he struck his father on the side of the head knocking him over.

Somersaulting over the wall back into the yard, Ranma looked at Akane. "2 minutes left" she yelled at his unasked question. Nabiki cast a glance sideways at her sister. _Man those two seem to be in sync today. Better keep my camera in my pocket all the time. Who knows what I might catch. _ Smiling Nabiki returned to watching the fight.

The panda came flying over the wall and objects were embedding themselves in the ground around Ranma. Giving them a sideways glance he realized they were all signs. _Pop should join the circus. Doubt they have a literate panda in their act._

Signs started flying at Ranma in quick succession.

"How could you do this to your father?"

"I sacrificed everything for you"

"Don't you love me?"

"How can you not honor me as your master?"

Ranma took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "Pop that has nothing to do with it. I just want to train Akane. Mr. Tendo would not push her to be faster and stronger than she already is and you would THROW HER IN A DAMN PIT OF HUNGRY CATS."

"AHHHHHHHHHH… stop trying to use guilt against me." Ranma ran at his father and the two traded kicks and punches until Ranma landed one to his chin, sending the panda several blocks away. "By the time he gets back time will be up." With that he sat the kettle down on the patio and walked toward Akane. "Get ready to go running."

"Yup, I'll go change into my jogging outfit."

Ranma climbed the stairs too so he could get his sweats. Akane could hear him breathing a little heavy behind her. "Are you sure you want to start training right now? Maybe you should rest for a little while."

"Questioning your sensei already?" Ranma replied with feigned disgust. Akane didn't quite catch the sarcasm in his voice. "Idiot! Fine, like I care if you are too tired from already fighting. Just hope you can keep up with me."

Ranma reached up and grabbed her arm stopping her on the top step. "I am fine. A short fight and a jog is nothing compared to what I have been doing recently; but if you decide to push yourself too hard I will stop training you."

Since Ranma was a step lower than her, Akane was looking right at his face. Blushing and looking around quickly, she leaned in timidly and touched her lips to Ranma's. Ranma was pleasantly surprised by her actions and returned the brief kiss. "I really am fine, pop has never felt so easy to beat." Ranma said while at the same time Akane spoke too. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have questioned you. I really do want you to train me."

"Akane, I was just teasing you when I made that comment about questioning me. I wasn't teasing though about pushing yourself too hard. You agreed to let me determine when you should move forward."

"I know, I trust you Ranma."

"And I promise to get only a little mad when you question me… which I figure will be constantly." Ranma winked at Akane and Akane glared back. "That face is perfect Akane, it has been a while since I have seen your angry look. Oh wait I saw it just this morning at breakfast." He stuck his tongue out at her and walked past her and to his room.

"Gah! He is so cocky." Akane turned to head to her room and get ready.

She met him downstairs at the front door within about 5 minutes. He looked over her outfit, it certainly was put together with more care then his own. Her headband matched her shirt and her little running shorts were showing off an enjoyable amount of leg. "Ready to start?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, sensei" replied Akane with a sneer. Akane only made it half the distance she normally would have run but that didn't diminish her happiness at all. She felt exhilarated just to be active again and shortly after she had started running the small bit of anger at Ranma for his comments had faded completely. This was a small piece of normalcy that she had regained for herself. Akane was smiling as they turned back on the street leading to the Tendo residence.

_She really is cute when she smiles._ Ranma jogged ahead of Akane and took a "wrong" turn down an alley. "Ranma, where are you… wha..?" Ranma had pulled her to him and captured her mouth. She was hot and sweaty and tried to push away but he didn't let go. He smelled of sweat but it was smell that Akane was used to after all this time. She relaxed into the kiss and Ranma deeped it, pulling her closer yet.

The kiss ended and both of them smiled at each other. "You looked cute smiling there at the end of the jog, and I wanted to return the favor from earlier on the stairs." Ranma was blushing at the confession.

"That was really nice but we should probably get going before one of your many other fiancés show up and cause trouble." With that Akane smiled again and casually jogged toward the house.

Ranma followed behind. He hated that she threw the other girls at him. _Why did she have to ruin it? Arg, no she didn't really ruin it, she's right. Shampoo and Kodachi, and as much as he hated to admit it Ukyo, were all part of the reason he was training her. If they caught them kissing things would get bad. _ He had seen other couples go out on dates without having to worry about jealous fiancés, crazy wooded sword wielding upperclassmen, or intruding family showing up. Out of the four girls who claimed to be his fiancé, Shampoo and Kodachi were the most dangerous to Akane. Ukyo wouldn't really hurt her he didn't think but her cross-dressing friend was crazy enough to do something stupid.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer - **Nope Nope, don't own Ranma 1/2.

Chapter 3 – Ryoga's unpleasant welcome

Their routine continued the rest of the week. School was still out of session for break but they would return in a couple of weeks. They started each day with a run and later ran through basics then finished with a kata. Like with many things in her life she needed to relax in order to improve. Her stances and kata routines were stiffer than Ranma's and he would bark at her about allowing her rhythm to flow from one posture to the next. Ranma was turning out to be a harsher than she thought he would be but she would remind herself that it meant he was taking her seriously. She had to work really hard to not get mad every time and argue when he did that. She was not always successful. Today was one of those days.

"Leave me alone. I will figure it out by myself."

"No you won't. I can see where you are messing up and you can't. Stop being so bull-headed and stubborn."

"I'm stubborn? You won't let me do anything new. You just have a big ego and all you want to do is tell me I am bad at everything."

"No, Akane, you are bad at cooking. Your martial arts just need refined and perfected and then you can add new things. Master what you know before working anything else. Stop arguing with me about this."

Akane huffed and stomped away to the other side of the dojo. Ranma watched her go and knew he wasn't going to get her to listen again today unless she worked off some of that aggression.

"Fine, a break in routine, let's spar."

"Really?!" Akane's face lit up in a smile.

_Well that does it, she smiled. I am sunk. _ Ranme smiled at her. "Yeah but I am still not going to hit you."

Akane frowned at him but moved into her stance. The sparring progressed as usual with Ranma dodging every blow. He focused on watching her technique and looking for ways to improve it while at the same time gauging her speed. She wasn't as fast as she had gotten to be before Jusenkyo but it would get faster again. Right now the blows were easy to dodge. He hoped that by next month her speed would improve enough that she would realize that by dodging her he was actually improving her chances of hitting another opponent. Not many people were faster than Ranma so if she could ever hit him, she would be amazing.

Akane was getting angrier and angrier as Ranma avoided being hit. She felt so slow and sluggish compared to him and damn him, he was smiling at her with that stupid cocky grin of his. She wanted to punch it off his face. Akane was concentrating on nothing else around her, she was so focused on that annoying grin that she didn't hear the battle cry until Ranma flew out from in front of her. She didn't know what happened but she heard Ranma hit the far wall with a grunt. She just reacted and threw a strong punch followed by a quick sharp kick at the unknown assailant. She didn't manage to send whoever it was sailing away but the person was thrown back a few feet and landed on their back.

"She should be in bed. How dare you punch her like this? Ranma you are a jerk who only thinks of himself."

Akane stopped and stared at the boy in the yellow bandana. She could only gap at him in shock. She had hit Ryoga. _Why was he mad at Ranma now? _ They hadn't seen him since they got back from China. He claimed he was going to visit Akari at her farm, she had been worried because he seemed really down the whole trip back.

"What the hell was that for Ryoga?" Ranma stood up and stalked over to the boy on the ground. He looked over at Akane, whose mouth was still hanging open. "Nice hit Akane. Really solid and strong."

"Akane should be being taken care of, not abused, especially after what she did for you. I thought you had changed but I guess not, you are still as mean to her as ever."

Akane finally found her voice. "Ryoga, I wanted this. I need it, I need to feel stronger and well better. I am fine."

"It isn't worth it Akane. Ryoga only ever wants to see me as a bad guy and that is fine. I can take him on anytime."

Akane ran over to Ryoga's side much to Ranma's chagrin. "Ryoga, I am really sorry I hit you. I didn't realize until too late that it was you. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. What do you mean you need to feel stronger? Ranma is supposed to protect you. I protect you. You just need to be the really nice girl that you are."

"That is sweet of you Ryoga but martial arts are important to me. I have even had you train me before. Remember the Gymnastics competition."

"Too bad you were still too clumsy and tripped over the ball. I hated wearing that stupid leotard."

Akane glared at Ranma over that comment and retorted, "At least I don't have Kodachi AND Kuno out to date me."

"Grrrr…just Kuno is bad enough." was the best reply Ranma came up with, then he rolled his eyes and walked away. Ranma was staring at the wall of the dojo when he said, "All the crazy people who think they are going to marry one of us is why I am training her, as well as the Pantyhose Toros, birdmen, frog masters and even boys or pigs in bandannas who get in the way. She will be safer if she can defend herself."

Akane let out a long sigh, "See Ryoga, not only do I just want to get back to normal after what happened in China but I also want to improve my skills as a martial artist. I want to be taken seriously." The last statement was directed at Ranma.

"Who says I am not?"

"I am sorry I interrupted your training Akane. If you would like me to help you too I will."

"NO" Ranma turned and directed this not at Ryoga but at Akane. "No one else trains you that is what we agreed on."

"Ranma is right, Ryoga. Thank you for the offer but he is my sensei and I trust him to teach me. Would you like to stay for dinner tonight? I bet Kasumi made plenty." Turning to Ranma, "Are we done? We haven't done our kata yet. Do you want to run through it?"

"Yeah come on." He walked over to the middle of the room and Akane took her place beside him. Ryoga was pretty impressed at how they looked moving though the routine. It was depressing to realize that they looked a lot like a fluid pair instead of two separate people. Maybe things had changed, he hated how often Ranma used to upset Akane. Some nights she would even cry and talk to P-chan. He wanted her to be happy but he really hated that she might be happy with Ranma. Ryoga had watched Ranma's depression when he thought Akane was gone, then his desperation when the Jusenkyo guide found the shrunken doll-like version of Akane caught in her clothes. Ranma had nearly tried to kill the man just for taking the clothes away to look. Of course he hadn't told any of them what he was looking for until the guide pulled her out. They were all relieved but Ranma was almost scary how he had reacted. Anyone in his way would have died. Saffron did when he tried to stop Ranma. Jerk was reborn but if Ryoga understood it correctly it does mean that Saffron was not just defeated but died. It seemed that Ranma had pretty much killed for Akane. No one had dared get near Ranma when he finally reached the water with her and she was still not moving. His heart broke that day watching it all happen. He had felt so relieved when she regained consciousness but seeing her cling to Ranma was terrible. When he heard them fighting tonight his hope that Akane hated Ranma was renewed but that was cut short when she defended him both physically and verbally.

"Are you okay Ryoga?" He looked up at Akane and realized that they were done. He had been staring off into space.

"Yeah, I am fine. You are doing really well."

"Oh thanks, I have a lot still to learn."

They walked back to the house and Kasumi let them know she had drawn a bath. Akane opted to use it first and went upstairs. Ranma and Ryoga sat on the patio and waited.

"If she gets hurt it will be all your fault. You are too reckless to train her."

"She won't get hurt and besides she is MY fiancé, not yours. So your opinion doesn't matter and I better not catch any little black pigs sleeping in her bed. That little game is over. You do it again and I will simply tell her… or show her. Changing you back into a human right in front of her could be enjoyable to watch."

"If you tell her she will be mad at you too. Good luck trying to explain how you knew all along."

"Easy, I made a promise. She will get mad but I am used to that and I know she will get over it."

Ranma finally got to wash and while he was soaking he wondered why he didn't feel the normal stabs of jealousy when Ryoga was nice to Akane. _Was it because she defended me? Or because she told him that she trusted me to train her? Could it be because I know she loves me? _One of his favorite things to do while relaxing was remember that night. She had said out loud that she loved him, he felt calmer whenever he thought about it. Also he had finally had the nerve to kiss her. Not just once but had manage to sneak and kiss her once or twice each day since then. The couple she had initiated were the ones he liked to think about a little longer. _I haven't actually told her how I feel. I have tried to show her but I should tell her soon._ He heard Akane outside the door yell that supper was almost ready. He hurried to dry off and dress before his father ate all his own food then moved on to Ranma's share. _Things really are starting to feel normal again._

That evening after supper Nabiki had a date and their fathers had gone out to a council meeting, normally Soun went alone but the council had asked for both of them to help deal with a problem. It was entirely possible that the problem involved Happosai in some way, even though they hadn't seen the old pervert for a while. Kasumi wanted to give Ranma and Akane some space so she said that she was going to go upstairs for the rest of the night and work on her sewing project. Ranma figured Akane was a little worn out from today's training even though she would never admit it. _Stubborn tomboy._ Ranma turned on the TV and moved a couple of cushions over to closer. He flipped though channels and wondered if Akane would join him or not.

"P-Chan!" Akane ran over to the little black pig in the yard and scooped him up into a hug. "I haven't seen you in so long. I was worried." Behind her back Ranma was staring daggers at the pig. "Look Ranma, its P-chan." Her smile was huge, she really did care about that stupid pig. Sigh, "Yeah, I see that."

"No bullying him."

"As long as he behaves himself tonight."

Akane glared at Ranma but came over to sit beside him on the cushions with P-chan in her lap. "Find anything to watch."

"Not yet." He continued to change channels like before. An American superhero movie was on, he liked those and sometimes thought it would be cool to do stunt work as a career but if he inherited the Dojo running that would have to be his career. _Like there are any students._ That got him thinking a little though, stunt men pulled their punches and didn't leave marks on the other actors but still made it look real. So if he could work on that he might be able to eventually throw a punch at Akane without risking hurting seriously. "Want to watch this one? I think it is the first Spiderman movie, the one with the short guy."

"Sure," she smiled then leaned against him. He felt so warm and she could feel the strong muscles of his arm. She liked the way his arms felt. So many times in the past she had been picked up by him and his strength never ceased to amaze her. She knew she would never be as strong as him but if she can become strong like Ukyo or Shampoo then she might just stand a chance. Twice in the past she had been stronger than Ranma, smiling as she remembered how put out he was. He really did rescue her in the end when the suit was taking her over or when she grew whiskers as a side effect of Happosai's soup. It was fun being that strong for a while though. Now she wanted to do it without special aids.

"Whatcha thinking about? You have a funny look on your face."

"I am going to ignore that you said my face looked funny. I am just glad you agreed to train me. Thank you." She turned her smile on him and he was undone. He smiled back. "You will be faster and stronger I promise." He lifted his arm forcing her to stop leaning on him. She frown momentarily and then he smiled at her and held his arm out behind her. She grinned again and leaned back into him, resting on his chest with his arm around her shoulders. P-Chan growled at him from Akane's lap.

"I think he is jealous, now be a good little pig and let us watch our movie." Ranma quickly and quietly stuck his tongue out at the pig. _This could be fun. _ He then let his head rest against Akane's, the pig's eyes got huge.

Akane was relaxed watching the movie when Ranma put his head against hers. She felt herself blush but didn't want to stop him, he was just being so sweet to her. She really like it when Ranma got this way.

They continued to watch, Ranma liked to critique Spiderman's technique or choices while he noticed that Akane would sigh or make cute little noises during the more romantic parts. Whenever Mary Jane was particularly helpless though she would scoff. He found this the most adorable thing that she did, it was just so like Akane to not like a damsel in distress and he found himself agreeing with her. Rescuing her definitely made him feel manly but the fear and panic he felt wasn't always worth it. In fact the times they had fought together always felt the best.

The movie ended and since it was now pretty late, Akane left to go to bed. "That was fun Ranma, I really liked watching that with you."

_She took that damn P-Chan with her._ Ranma was starting to see red. Ranma could only nod in return. He didn't dare speak, he didn't want to ruin the nice evening they had enjoyed but he couldn't believe what Ryoga was doing. _That's it, it is time to make this really obvious to him and if that doesn't work then I will just have to kill him._ Thinking back to one scene in the movie, Ranma got a silly idea. Heading up to the roof and maneuvering to hang in front of Akane's window. _I hope this works, she made the cutest noise during this part of the movie. Hopefully I can accomplish more than one thing here and not end up being called a jerk._

Ranma knocked on her window quietly, this would be ruined if Nabiki heard anything. Akane opened her window and stared at Ranma's upside down face. "What is it Ranma? Everything ok?"

"Yeah…," suddenly nervous he tried to continue, "I um just wanted to um say that um…" She was frowning at him. _Shit I can't seem to do this. Take a deep breath and just do something._ He stared down (well kind up for him) at P-chan. "Please put the pig down."

Akane starting to ask why but Ranma had said please and she didn't want to ruin the nice night they had shared. It had felt like a little bit of a date and felt so normal. She went to set the little pig on her bed then walked back to the window. She had expected to turn around and find Ranma flipped right-side up on the window sill but he was still upside down.

"Okay Ranma, now what did you want?"

With a small grin, "Well I haven't managed to kiss you today so how about a goodnight kiss?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw the pig freeze and go wide-eyed. _Oh this is going to be a nice added bonus. _Focusing back on Akane she was smiling such a warm bright smile that he knew she was remembering the move scene too. She leaned out the window towards him and put her hands on the sides of his head.

"Is it your goal now to kiss me once a day?"

"Or more if you let me."

Grinning she laid her lips against his and from the bed P-chan started to cry. _I almost feel cruel to him but he needs to get over Akane. He has a really nice fiancé in Akari, she knows about his curse. Akane is going to kill him when she finds out._ Akane made one of those cute noises in the back of her throat and Ranma lost all of his focus followed by his grip. He hit the lower roof head first and slid off to the ground. "Ranma!" Akane jumped out her window and landed mostly gracefully on the ground beside him.

P-chan was still sitting on the bed. _She kissed him. She wanted to kiss him. She implied that they had kissed before and she wasn't mad at him. She smiled about it. She even made a happy little moaning noise. Does she actually love him? I gotta get out of here. _He jumped to the desk and out the window.

"Are you okay Ranma? What happened?"

"Yeah I am fine."

"But why did you fall?"

"Um… I'm not telling." He could feel his face getting red.

"Idiot you just don't want to admit that you slipped." Akane wasn't yelling at him or even sounding mean, she sounded a bit amused.

"You… you um made that little sound. In your throat."

Akane just stared at him with big eyes. _Did I moan? Did that distract him enough to lose his grip on the roof? _Then she giggled and Ranma glared at her. The more she smiled and laughed the harder time he was having glaring at her. After a minute or so he cracked a smile and laughed with her. He couldn't believe how quickly he had gotten over being mad about P-chan. Because he didn't chase him, hit him or yell at Akane, the evening was never ruined and maybe ended even better.

P-chan had made it down to the ground and was still watching them. He needed to leave and it would be better to find some hot water first. He doubted that there was a warm bath prepared right now.

Kasumi heard the commotion and went downstairs to check it out. She saw Akane and Ranma sitting on the ground laughing about something. "We're home." She heard her father yell as he came in the front door. Ranma and Akane obviously heard it too because they both jumped up and looked panicky.

"Come on Spiderman, get me back inside my window before they see me out here in my pajamas." Akane whispered to Ranma and he scooped her up and jump back up to the roof. He deftly hung from the roof edge and then balanced on the window sill letting her climb inside first. Ranma move quietly across her room and left through her door moving quickly to his room.

Kasumi wasn't the only older sister to see what happened. In fact Nabiki caught all of it on her video camera. Smiling she sat down to check out her new little bit of blackmail, she was really glad she made it home in time to see this. Her date had been boring but this perked her right up. She hit the playback button and made sure the sound was off. As watched she noticed something she hadn't before. She was so excited to catch them in a kiss and thinking of all the ways she could make more yen from it that she missed the look in her sister's eyes. She was completely and totally in love with Ranma and from the looks of it he was just as far gone. Since they had returned home from China neither of them had looked happy. But here it was right in front of her, pure happiness. _Shit, what the hell am I going to do now?_ She had been so busy congratulating herself on positioning her camera just right to catch them without being seen that she never realized that what she was catching wasn't embarrassing for the two of them. Oh sure they would blush but selling this would hurt them. She never really was out to hurt her sister. Sometimes she thought that Ranma deserved what he got and didn't think twice about getting him in more compromising positions. _I guess I will just have to sit on this for a while until I figure out the best way to use it._

That night was the first night that Ranma didn't have a nightmare about Akane dying.

**Thank you for reading. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer - **I do not own Ranma 1/2 or profit from this writing in anyway.

Thank to those who have reviewed. BobV: Thank you for pointing out that there were a few dialog issues. I think I have found them all and fixed them.

Yes their comfort level with each other does move a little fast. I am a sucker for stories where passion hidden as conflict becomes desire and have always thought that of Ranma and Akane's ability to irritate each other.

Chapter 4 - The Wall

Ranma woke up feeling more rested than he had in a while, getting up he changed and went downstairs. Seeing there was no one else up yet he sat on the porch thinking about the previous night. He had wanted to tell her how he felt but he didn't get it out again. _Coward, what are you afraid of? She lets you kiss her, hold her and tease her. We barely fight anymore. _Oh sure she still argues with him but it doesn't feel the same as it used to. He doesn't take her occasional anger with him as an indication that she does like him. He hated that it took her near death to get them to think before they spoke more often but he was still glad that they were starting to both control their mouths. He wanted to find a way to surprise her today. Not flowers or anything like that, he really didn't have much money anyway.

"Ranma you are up early today." Akane interrupted his reverie. She still sounded sleepy.

"I slept really well last night. How about you?"

"I was worried when I got back to my bed and P-chan was missing. I looked all over my room but he was gone. I hope he is ok."

"I am sure he is fine and will find his way back like he always has before." _Good Ryoga took off for the night. _

"Yeah you are probably right."

"What? I didn't hear that."

"You heard me just fine."

Ranma ran over and felt her forehead. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Idiot!" She started to stalk off but Ranma touched her on the shoulder. She turned around to face him again, "What do you want?"

"Want to get our jog in before breakfast?"

"Yeah ok, I'll go get ready." She climbed back upstairs slowly. _Idiot, he was so sweet last night. I guess he was only teasing me, I should be happy that he wasn't really being mean. What would happen if I teased him back?_

Akane came back downstairs and they took off on their normal route. When they got close to the little park Ranma had an idea that Akane might really like. He turn and changed direction heading closer to the park wall. It was low and wide, he jumped up on it and then turned to Akane. "Come on tomboy, time for something new." She concentrated and jumped up on top of it, landing without losing her balance. He picked her up and set her in front of him. "You run in front of me."

"Why? I will be fine, this will be easy."

"It will be harder than it looks and I can keep you from getting hurt, IF you fall off, better if I am watching you. Besides maybe I just like the way your legs look in those shorts."

Akane's gapped at him and blushed, "Pervert."

Although there wasn't much heat behind the statement, he glared at her anyway. "Get running or you don't get to run the wall today."

She turned and mutter multiple insults under her breath. "Stop complaining and think about your feet. If you ankle rolls wrong while you are up here you could end up in the hospital again. Remember the balance beam in gym class. You have to learn to still think about where your feet are and what they are doing even where there are distractions."

"I remember that distraction was partly your fault."

"Focus, do you really think if you are fighting against someone there won't be distractions. In fact there will be more than a camera flash and a little commotion."

Sigh, "You are right Ranma."

He fell off the wall.

Akane stopped and turned to look at him. He looked up at her, "Twice in one day is too much to handle. Are you sure you are feeling ok?"

"I can kick you downtown if it would help."

Ranma laid back and laughed. "Thanks but no thanks."

Akane stood on the wall and giggled. This side of Ranma both challenged her and was fun. She watched him stand back up still smiling and hop back on the wall.

"Enough fun, let's get going again."

Akane made it the entire length of the wall without stumbling. He was really pleased with her progress during training, the wall was getting added to their daily jogging path.

They walked into the house just in time for breakfast. "Oh good there will some left for us." With that Ranma ran around Akane and unceremoniously plopped down at the table. Ranma dove into his breakfast while Akane sat eating slowing and thinking over and over again how Ranma had said that he like the way her legs looked. _I wonder what he would do if I wore the shorts to spar instead of my gi. I might have to try that one day. _Akane glance at everyone else at the table and notice Nabiki giving her an odd look. "What's wrong Nabiki?"

"Oh nothing. You just look healthier than you have in a few weeks."

Akane beamed at her, "I think training is really making me feel better." Turning to her father, "Thank you father for letting me start training again."

Soun nodded at his daughter and noticed the different too, she just looked better. It some ways happier. Kasumi smiled and added more rice to her father's bowl while saying, "Ranma you must be doing a great job if Akane looks so much healthier. I am glad you are the one working with her. Thank you."

Ranma didn't really know what to say to her so he just smiled shyly. He looked at Mr. Tendo and said, "She is working really hard but I promise that she isn't pushing herself too far. Most of her old strength will be back soon."

Ranma's father was suspiciously quiet. Ranma thought that he must still be mad that Ranma had won the fight and was training Akane.

"Boy her training might be going well but your training is slacking. You are getting lazy and doing half the effort you used to do. You are going to get soft."

"Shut up Pop. I am not getting soft."

Ranma stalked off towards the dojo but Genma pounced and attacked him from behind. Ranma rolled forward and threw his father using his momentum against him into the wall. They fought like that for several more minutes before Akane got bored of watching them and went to change into her gi. Their routine was to work out in the dojo after running so she figured that Ranma would still insist on it unless his father actually managed to hurt him. After she changed she looked out her window to see if they were still going at it. They were of course, their fights could last hours. It looked like they had hit the pond at some point; she saw red hair instead of black and Genma was definitely a Panda.

Since last night she had managed to jump down without a problem, probably because Ranma's training was actually making her lighter on her feet, she hopped out again today. She just wanted to get inside the dojo, maybe break a few bricks. She was thinking to herself about what she might get to work on while Ranma was otherwise occupied when someone hit her. Full body ran into her. She felt small arms wrap around her and roll with her. She felt a sharp pain and cried out.

When Ranma finally got their momentum stopped she looked down at Akane. She had only seen her at the last moment and couldn't avoid hitting her. "Akane are you ok?" She moved one her hands from Akane's torso and saw blood on it. Panic set in, frantically she looked at her own hand and arm, no major cuts and nothing that seemed to be bleed much. She tenderly started searching Akane's body and found more blood but hadn't yet determined exactly where it was coming from.

"Ranma? I'm ok"

"NO YOU AREN'T, YOU ARE BLEEDING IDIOT. Why were you there? Why weren't you on the porch like everyone else?" Ranma called out to Kasumi to bring the first aid kit and gently laid Akane on the ground. "Don't move."

"Ranma, where is she hurt?" Kasumi asked as her approached the pair.

"I think it is on her side."

Kasumi looked over Akane while Ranma turned around. His father was still standing across the yard where he had thrown Ranma from. She was ready to yell at her father when Kasumi interrupted him.

"I think she is going to need stitches. She needs to go to Dr. Tofu."

"Kasumi will you take her? Or call Dr. Tofu to come here?" Her tone flat and her eyes were hard, even her aura had darkened.

Akane got a worried look on her face, "Ranma? Are you ok?" _Her voice is so cold. _

Ranma sped across the lawn to her father.

_I guess he just wants to finish the fight._

"This is all your fault old man. She got hurt because you are a stupid, hard-headed jerk." Ranma continued to come at her father without relenting. Genma was forced to only defend and before long Ranma got through those defenses and landed not one but many hits against the Panda. She had used his Chestnuts Roasting Over An Open Fire attack with full battle aura and was much faster at it while in female form. The panda fell knocked out cold.

"Ranma!" Nearly everyone had shouted at him. Nabiki had just returned with a kettle of hot water and was shocked to see the ferocity with which Ranma had gone after Genma. She could see that the panda was still breathing but other than that she could tell how badly he was injured.

Ranma turned to Akane and started to walk over. "Here Ranma," Nabiki got his attention from the porch. In her hands was a kettle of hot water. She took it, pour some on herself and handed it back. Then continued walking over to Akane.

"Ranma, I will be ok. You have to relax."

"No. Stubborn fool, you were heading to the dojo weren't you?"

"It is my family's dojo, I can go in there if I want to."

Ranma turned and walked off to the dojo. He was going to have to work off some of his anger before he could talk to her again.

Dr. Tofu arrived and determined that Akane didn't need stitches. He smoothed some ointment over the wound, bandaged it and talked to Akane about what had happened. Kasumi was absent from the scene as Nabiki had skillfully guided her away before Dr. Tofu could see her.

"I know better than to move away from the porch when Ranma is fighting. He can only avoid hurting people if he knows where they are. It is really my fault. His is so mad at me right now."

"Akane, don't be too hard on yourself. It could have been much worse and that is likely all Ranma is thinking right now. From what I understand, Ranma has seen you hurt so much worse that he is going to have trouble imaging any wound not being terrible right now. This is truly just a scratch and it will heal quickly. I am going to go check on Mr. Saotome, I heard Ranma hit him really hard." Dr. Tofu stood up to cross the yard. He paused a moment and said to Akane, "Ranma usually doesn't get that mad at his father. You should try to get him to talk."

Akane looked over at the dojo. She carefully stood up, wincing a little as the wound shifted, and headed towards it.

When she opened the door she saw him moving through their kick routine. His speed was incredible, he really did move a lot slower when she was there with him. "Ranma?"

He stopped and looked at her. He was still mad but his aura had calmed down at least. "Ranma, I am really sorry. I don't need stitches and Dr. Tofu said it will heal quickly."

"That's good." His statement was so emotionless. She wanted him to look at her softly like had so many times recently. She walked over and put her arms around him, when he tried to pull away she just held tighter. She never did this sort of thing to him. The other girls did and he hated it but so what, she could hold him too and it simply felt like the right thing to do. He eventually relaxed and put his hands on her shoulders, she still didn't let go. His breathing slowed and he put his face down into her hair. "I'm sorry Akane, I hate that I was involved with hurting you."

"Idiot, I know better. This isn't the first time I have gotten myself into trouble by leaving a safe area when you are fighting. It might not be the last. But I promise I will try harder. By the way Dr. Tofu is taking a look at your father."

Ranma's face darkened at the mention of his father. "Most of this is his fault. He threw me across the yard. That is why I ran into you. I probably shouldn't have hit him so hard."

"Ranma you really scared us. You looked so cold. Almost like you wanted to kill him"

"I don't really remember thinking, just acting. You were bleeding on the ground and it was like I was in one of my nightmares. I just wanted him to stop, I just wanted to stop whatever had hurt you. I'm really sorry I scared everyone."

"Ranma I am not a piece of glass. I am not some dainty little girl who is scared of blood and afraid to get a few bruises. I am a martial artist who will one day teach and run this dojo. If you want a fiancé who is sweet and petite and will be perfect all the time then I am the wrong sister for you."

"I know you are not petite and dainty or scared of getting hurt. That is why I love you. I love that you are strong, resilient, stubborn and a tomboy. I don't want either of your sisters, I want you."

She looked up into his eyes and smiled. His anger went away. Her damn smiles were going to be the end of him. She disarmed him again by reaching up to his neck and pulling his mouth to hers. This kiss felt different. It wasn't sweet, he felt desperate; he couldn't get enough of her mouth. He moved his hands up to frame her face and run through her hair.

Outside the dojo, Nabiki caught the whole thing on her camera. She was sitting there wondering what the hell to do with this tape too when Kasumi called out for Ranma. Nabiki made a quick getaway through the shadows back to the house.

Ranma and Akane let go of each other quickly when they heard Kasumi's voice. "Coming Kasumi!" Facing Ranma again, "Are you really okay now?"

"Yeah I am fine. We better go see how Pop is doing."

**Thanks for reading.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer - **I don't own Ranma 1/2.

Definitely a fluff bit and a shorter chapter but I liked the breaking point so I posted 2 chapters. For those waiting for an encounter with one of the other suitors it is in chapter 6.

Chapter 5 – If you can hit me

Genma recovered quickly as usual and although he was still irritated with Ranma he acknowledged that if Ranma was willing to knock him out then he had won the right to train Akane. He was sitting this morning playing shoji with his friend, Soun. "I am not sure if Ranma's reaction to Akane getting cut is encouraging or worrisome."

"Hmmm… I know what you mean Genma. It seemed a little extreme but it could mean that the boy is in love with my little girl. We might be able to unite our families soon."

"That is such a wonderful thought. However, we might want to watch out for Ranma's temper for the time being."

"True, true…" Soun pondered Ranma's change in temper last night. Genma took the opportunity to switch tiles while his friend was distracted. Anything-Goes Martials Arts meant never missing a good opportunity.

School would start back up in a few days so Ranma and Akane were sitting upstairs on her bedroom floor "discussing" a new training schedule. Their voices continued to get louder and louder until the whole house was tired of hearing them yell.

Nabiki banged on Akane's door and slammed it open. "Maybe if you two went to Mt. Fuji the rest of us could actually hear ourselves think. Can't you think of something quieter to do while you are ALONE IN A BEDROOM."

"NABIKI!"

"WE WEREN'T DOIN NOTHIN."

"Oh believe me guys, nobody thought you were doing anything fun. If ours fathers did then they would be hanging the wedding banner. Instead they are crying and drinking sake, lamenting that the families will never be joined."

Both quieted down and Nabiki shut the door again.

"I'm not going to try to hit you and that is final. Look what I did to my dad."

"I will never be able to take a hit if I don't get hit. I could always try to hit myself with boulders, maybe bees, or buckets of water."

Grrrr…. "For one Ryoga was already really tough when he did that insane training, the bees were my father's idea of training so that automatically makes it a bad idea, and the buckets of water wouldn't be as painful for you as they were for me." Ranma shuttered remembering that crazy steel girdle.

"WELL FIND SOMETHING THEN THAT CAN ACTUALLY MAKE ME BE WORRIED ABOUT GETTING HIT."

"NO"

Their fight continued and their voices raised right back up to where they were previously. Nabiki looked around at everyone, "I think we should go out to eat. I really can't take much more of this."

Kasumi pondered this for a minute, "The ingredients I have prepped for tonight's dinner will save just fine until tomorrow."

Both girls stood up to leave. "Give me a minute to store everything for tomorrow." Kasumi detoured to the kitchen and Genma and Soun both rose as well and soon the four family members left with their ears feeling like they were bleeding.

Up in the bedroom, Akane had reached her limit and kicked Ranma with all of her strength. He went sailing through the window.

Ranma landed just beyond the wall around the house. "Huh, she got me a little further. I guess she really is getting healthier." He then jump back over the wall to head back into the house.

He frowned as he looked around the house. No one seemed to be home. He found a note on the fridge left for them from Kasumi. There was apparently a couple of dinners in the fridge and the rest had gone out to eat without them. _We chased them off, damn._ He grabbed the plates from the fridge and took them with him up stairs.

He knocked on her door while balancing the plates on one arm. She tore the door open, "What the hell do you want now?"

"The others left." He shoved a plate toward her. "Here. Kasumi left us plates of food for dinner."

"Oh, I guess we over did it huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Come on back in, we can sit in here and eat." She open the door further and led him back into the room. She took the plate from him and sat down on the floor again.

Ranma sat down and stared at his food. "Akane, I need to tell you something but I need you not to interrupt me or get mad."

"Ranma?"

"Just promise, okay?"

"Um yeah okay."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I know you are right that you will eventually need to actually dodge hits and possibly get hit. It has to wait until I can either do it or watch someone else do it. I don't know what happened to me yesterday but I have never hit Pop that hard. I just reacted and I didn't feel in control at all. I have nightmares where you die, not just get hurt." He saw her eyes soften but she kept her promise and didn't say anything. "It hasn't been very long yet that you have been training again. I really do think it is important that you regain your strength and increase your speed before we get to that point."

Ranma took another deep breath and tried to smile at Akane, hoping it would help her not get so mad again. She didn't get mad but she look dejected which was almost worse.

"Tell ya what, if you can hit me…" He threw up his hands in front of himself, "while we are sparring during training only. Then I will try to hit you back."

Her smile lit up her face made him feel like his insides had gone completely liquid. "Thank you Ranma." She put down her plate and lean over to give him a quick peck on the cheek and was rewarded with a smile back from him as well.

"Let's eat!"

Ranma return to his food and then look over at her. "Hey, why is all your food different from mine? What do you have?"

Akane giggled and looked at his partially eaten plate. "Hey you got some of my favorite!" Ranma held up his plate towards her and she nearly fell over from shock. Ranma never offered food freely to others. He had allowed her to take food from his plate before but always made at least a token protest. She tentatively reach over and took a small amount and ate it. She smile at him, "Thank you."

"What you got?"

Akane giggled again and picked up a piece of eel. She knew he really liked those. _I wonder what he will do? _She held out her chopsticks with the eel on it. He looked a little surprised and gave her a questioning look. When she smile again at him he leaned over and ate it.

They moved and sat next to each other and shared the rest of their plates. Akane was pretty sure that Ranma managed to get more than her but she was more surprised that he ate calmly. He usually shoveled food in as fast as he could. "This was nice Ranma." She picked up the plates and sat them on her desk. "I will take them downstairs later."

When she turned around Ranma had shifted and was sitting against her bed with one leg straight out and one leg bent upwards with his arm resting on his knee. Akane gave Ranma a cocky grin and scooted over to him.

He was afraid. Akane never looked at him like that.

She gently took his knee that was against the floor and pull on it until it was bent outward making a little area between his legs. She moved and sat with her back against his raised leg and her legs curled under her then laid her head on his chest.

Ranma was stiff the whole time she was moving him around. Once she settle in he let out the breath he was holding and put his arms around her, one around her shoulders and the other rested on one of her legs. He was blushing the whole time but a pleasant warm feeling was settling over him. Relaxing his neck he rested his cheek against to the top of her head.

"Ranma?"

"Yeah"

"Did you really mean what you say last night in the dojo?"

"What part?"

"The part about how you love that I am stubborn."

"Ha well some days less that others, but yes. If you weren't stubborn you wouldn't be a very good martial artist."

"Do you really think I am uncute?"

"Only when you are mad at me."

She sat and thought about his answers for a minute.

"Akane?"

"What?"

"Do you really think I am a pervert?"

"Not really. All teenage boys are little perverted aren't they though?"

"But do you think I am perverted because of the curse."

"Not at all."

"Really? How do you feel about my female side?"

"What do you mean?"

He blushed and tried to think of what to say to explain that he was afraid she only loved his male side and that unless he could find a cure she would eventually stop loving him. "Well um you know, that first night in the dojo you said you loved me. But I was a boy then."

Akane pulled her head back from his chest and looked at him surprised. "I don't know." Ranma hung his head and closed his eyes. "Wait! What I mean is that I don't know if I would feel differently if I had known you before the curse, but I fell in love with you just the way you are. I said on that odd island that I liked you just the way you are and I meant it."

"Okay, thanks. I still want to get cured someday." He touched her arm and rubbed small circles with his thumb.

"I have been thinking about the curse ever since Pantyhose Toro. I am not sure the spring of the drown boy will help you."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Well look at what happened to him. Instead of replacing the old curse a new one was just added in. I know his original curse was 3 animals that all drowned in the same spring but then he went back and acquired an additional curse. How did he do that, did he drown an octopus in the already mixed up one or did he just dunk himself in another spring? So if you went to the spring of the drown boy to get cured, what if instead you ended up as both boy and girl and well just a mess?"

"I already am a boy and a girl."

"I mean at the same time. You know how some animals have both genders at the same time, well it could be like that."

"I never thought about that. That would be worse."

Akane settled back in against his chest and sighed. _Ranma is a lot more sensitive than people think. _She felt his fingers under chin and he tilted her face up.

He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her gently. When she grabbed his neck and tighten her fingers the kiss got more urgent. He heard it again, that sound, she had moaned softly. He snaked his arms around her and pulled her close and held her really tight. _Ah, I need to breath but I don't want to stop._

Ranma released Akane, lips and all, grabbed her waist and lifted her up while straightening his legs. He then settle her back on top of his legs so that she was straddling him. He sat up straighter then pull her back to him and covered her mouth again with his. Her fingers dug into his chest while his were running softy up and down her back.

When they finally pulled apart they were both blushing and breathing heavy. "This is so much better than fighting." Akane had to agree with Ranma. "School is going to tough, especially when the other guys hit on you."

"Well I have to deal with girls and guys hitting on you." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"That isn't funny."

"It's a little funny. Except for the homicidal ones."

"Ugg, don't remind me. But after what Mousse did in China, I hope that Shampoo is at little less infatuated with me."

"What happened? I don't think I ever heard that whole story. I could hear what was going on but I couldn't see anything from inside your shirt."

Ranma didn't know if she remember that Shampoo had threaten to kill her but he didn't like thinking about it so he decided to start the story where the others had caught up to him. "I told you about the egg that Pop got trapped in right? Well I got Shampoo with one to make her loyal to us again. Mousse was fighting against me so that he could be the first person she saw after hatching."

"Why didn't you just let him? It would have solved your problem with her."

"I was going to tell her she had to help us and then later release her. I don't want to marry her and I don't love her but I also didn't want her to only fall for Mousse because of a spell or curse or whatever. That seemed as terrible as her thinking she has to marry me because I accidentally defeated her."

"Oh"

"Well he got to her first but quickly put a mirror in front of her so that she saw herself first. He gave up the chance to force her to love him. She only belonged to herself. She was nicer to Mousse after that but I have only seen her a couple of times since we got back."

"You have seen her?"

"Yeah she came over the day after we got back and a couple days after that. I don't really remember much, just that I wasn't really nice to anyone and that probably included her. She threatened to hurt us all while you were dehydrated. I can't really forgive that even if she was under some spell at the time."

He pulled her back to him. He didn't really want to talk more, he just wanted her right now and the feeling he got when she was kissing him. He got to savor that feeling until they heard the family get home then he sneaked back his room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Once again the disclaimer - **Don't own Ranma 1/2

Until now I have not really let the couple out of the Tendo compound as the gain some trust in their relationship. I have tried to only slowly have Ranma become comfortable with more distance between himself and Akane, sleeping in her room to checking on her outside her window to somewhat back to normal. They have left together to jog and that is it. So I tried to imagine what it might be like for him to not know exactly where she was. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 6 – Something is wrong

"Akane, I need you to take this list and go shopping for me." Kasumi was busy in the kitchen preparing a nice dinner for the family. She liked to serve Nabiki, Akane and now Ranma their favorites the night before school started again.

"Sure"

Ranma was in the dojo finishing his own workout. He didn't want his father to end up being right, he needed to make sure he stayed strong. He and Akane were going to work out together later today. They had already gone for a jog that morning. She had been so excited when he surprised her with another fun change to the workout. He had her running the wall again but this time instead he would yell jump at her and she had to jump off the wall keep running and listen for him to yell it again so she could jump back up. The goal was to improve her dexterity while moving. She stumbled once while she was on the wall and Ranma grabbed her and got her back on her feet. He wanted to make her stop and go home, keeping her safe but he didn't. Instead he just helped her get her balance back and then told her to get going again. He thought she would be irritated with him but she just looked more determined and jumped back on the wall. _That is I why I love her. She isn't a damsel in distress. Even when she has been kidnapped or hurt, she still fights. _He remembered the time Shampoo was taken by that creepy giant cat, it made him shiver just thinking about it, she just sat in that stupid cage waiting for him to rescue her. Like it was some sort of proof that he loved her. Didn't anyone ever notice that Akane was the only fiancé that he had ever rescued without being told to? When something happened to her he worried and never hesitated to risk his life to keep her safe. _You would think that after all this time the others would get a clue. Hell, even when he said he wasn't going to marry them they didn't care. Of course, Akane and I used to always deny we wanted to get married to each other so maybe I wasn't as discouraging to the others as I always thought._

He finished his workout and was pretty tired having pushed himself harder than he had lately. Walking back in the house he glanced around for Akane. He walked upstairs and peeked in her bedroom and still didn't find her. He could feel his chest tightening and didn't like it. Walking quickly downstairs he ran into Kasumi, quite literally, and had to grab her before she fell over. "Where is Akane?"

"Oh I sent her into town to pick up some things. Is everything okay?"

"I am going to find her." He rushed off before Kasumi could say anything else.

He took off towards the shopping area and looked for Akane. The feeling in his chest hadn't stopped, she was probably okay but he had to see for himself. Part of him knew something was wrong with him. This reaction was silly, she was fine; there was no real reason to think that she wasn't.

"Ranma?"

He skidded to a stop and looked for the voice that had called him. He saw Dr. Tofu by the wall of his clinic. "Um hi I can't really um stay or anything, I am looking for Akane."

"Akane is here."

"She is? Is she okay? What happened?" He didn't actually listen for an answer to any of his questions, he tore past the doctor and run into the clinic. Akane was inside drinking tea.

"Oh hi Ranma. Are you okay?"

"Um yeah. What's wrong? Why are you here?"

"Kasumi asked me to buy some things in town and to drop off a book she borrowed from Dr. Tofu. You don't look good."

Dr. Tofu walked back in but didn't say anything, he just listened to the teens.

"You weren't home and I came looking for you."

"Buy why?"

"Um… I don't know."

Dr. Tofu moved carefully toward Ranma. "Sit down Ranma." He check his patient's pulse and blood pressure then read his aura. Dr. Tofu was very gifted at using pressure points and reading auras, especially these two as they were very regular patients.

"Ranma, did your chest feel tight?"

"Um yeah sorta."

"Did that tightness stay until you found her?"

"How did you know?"

"Ranma that is a panic attack. Most people can't function while they are having one. But you are no ordinary person, you are a martial artist. You aren't even an ordinary martial artist."

Ranma stared at the doctor. "What does that mean?"

"It means that unless you work to recover then they might get worse."

"Dr. Tofu?" Akane wanted to voice a concern, "Is the way Ranma reacted towards his father part of the same thing?"

"Yes, I believe so. Ranma I would like you to stop by here after school this week and talk to me. I will do a little research and maybe we can find a way for you to feel like yourself again."

"But um what about Akane? I mean she walks home with me."

"Walk her home first then come back here." Akane started to protest Dr. Tofu's words but he cut her off. "Akane you are going to important to helping Ranma. Letting him get you safely home is one small thing you can do."

"Okay"

Dr. Tofu left the room when he heard another patient come in.

"Ranma, I am sorry, I didn't know I would make you worry by running errands."

"I know you didn't. How could you know? I guess there really is something wrong with me."

"There is nothing wrong with you, everybody worried about me instead of you. Let's go home, Kasumi will need the items I picked up."

"Yeah okay" He reached out and held her hand and with his other he picked up the bag of groceries. "Ready?"

"Yes."

They walked out hand in hand. Ranma felt calm again. He worried about school though, there would be classes and times that he wouldn't be able to check on her.

Both of them were lost in their own thoughts and didn't hear the bike until it was too late. Ranma was suddenly flatten on the ground with a bicycle on top of him. "Get off me."

"Why you hold hands with hussy?"

"I'm not a hussy and get your stupid bike off of him."

Shampoo jumped off her bike toward Akane. "Ranma like Shampoo, he rescue her in China. You play sick so that he will pay attention to you."

Akane was appalled. She had heard that Shampoo knew most of what had happened and couldn't believe the Amazon would accuse her of playing sick. She was getting really angry and reached out and pull the annoying girl's purple hair. She pulled really hard. "Ranma is my fiancé, get over it."

_Oh crap! Akane isn't ready to take on Shampoo. Did she really just pull her hair? That is so girly. _Ranma stood up to intervene.

CRACK

Akane was knocked sideways as Shampoo slapped her face really hard. Shampoo didn't know what hit her from behind but she was being twisted around and shoved up against the nearby wall. Looking down she saw a very mean looking Ranma holding her neck. His aura was so dark it was nearly black. Shampoo was having trouble breathing and her eyes went wide with shock. Then she was lifted off her feet and breathing became even harder.

"How dare you hit Akane!"

Ranma had never really attacked her and he never looked like he wanted to kill her. This was not the same Ranma. What was wrong?

"Ranma stop! You are going to hurt her." Akane got up, her face really hurt but she moved to put herself between Ranma and Shampoo.

Shampoo made an awful gurgling sound and struggled to loosen Ranma's grip on her neck.

"Ranma," Akane whispered gently, "I am fine, I am not hurt. I'm right here. Please stop hurting her."

Ranma finally looked down at Akane and closed his eyes. Shampoo felt his grip release and she pushed him back gasping for air. "Why you do that? What is wrong with him?"

"Ranma went through a lot more than the rest of you in China."

"Don't make excuses for me Akane. I'm sorry Shampoo. Are you going to be ok?"

Shampoo started to move towards Ranma to put her arms around him but when she looked Akane already was. _How dare she? _"Shampoo should be the one to comfort him, not stupid girl."

"Shampoo just shut up!" Ranma glared at her.

"Ranma, let's just go home."

"No, you no leave without telling what is wrong with Ranma."

"I'll be right back." Akane walked calmly away from the pair.

"See she leave us alone. Now you hug Shampoo too."

"Shampoo, what about Mousse? How can you be so mean to him after what he did for you in China?"

"Mousse not strong like Ranma. Ranma more worthy of being Shampoo husband. Ranma defeat god."

Akane came back around the corner and had something in her hand. She carefully walked over between Ranma and Shampoo and overturned the contents of a small bowl on Shampoo's head. A small cat now stood in Shampoo's spot. "Ranma close your eyes please."

He complied before he had to look at the cat. He was still getting nervous but he could feel Akane's hands touching his arms and moving up to his neck. _What is she doing? Let's just leave… fast._

Akane pulled Ranma's face to her own. "You are safe, you are with me." She gently kissed him. The little cat stood still, shocked. Akane had never been so bold. The two broke apart and Akane held on the Ranma's hand. "We are going home. You are not going to follow. If you trigger his cat-fu I will not save you again."

Akane picked up the bag of groceries from where Ranma had dropped them and pulled him in the direction of home. Once he realized they were moving away from the cat he picked up the pace and Akane had to jog to keep up with him.

He didn't slow down until they got inside the gate. Then he stopped and hugged Akane hard. "That was stupid. We don't know what she will do now." Akane struggled against him but he didn't let go. "Stop, I need to hold on to you for a minute." Akane stopped moving. She looked up at Ranma with tears in her eyes. He loosen his grip. "What's wrong? Did I hurt you? Don't cry, please don't cry."

She put her arms around his waist. "I am fine Ranma. It was just a slap. A hard one but just a slap. Shampoo wasn't actually trying to hurt me. We were irresponsible to hold hands in public."

"But why are you crying?"

"Well… let's see, you scared me, the slap stings and mostly because I want to hold your hand in public and it doesn't look like I can."

"I doubt our life will ever be normal. I am used to getting ran over by that stupid bike but you shouldn't have provoked her further."

"I am tired of stepping aside while one of those silly girls tries to crawl all over you. The only one I can stand is Ukyo because she doesn't insist on hugging you and kissing you all the time."

"Hey I don't want them to do that, you know that right?"

"Yeah I actually do know that but it is still hard to take. Shampoo is pretty and strong."

"Um… and manipulative and just plain annoying."

"Kodochi always reminds me how rich she is and how well she can cook."

"She is crazy… completely crazy and stupid."

"Ukyo gives you free food."

"Yeah, that is pretty great."

Akane gave Ranma an angry look.

"I mean you can't cook at all. Your food could kill people." Akane was starting to fume and her battle aura was raising, this time Ranma took a chance and ignored it. "But I guess that just doesn't matter to me. I guess my stomach isn't what is deciding which girl I want to hold and kiss and spend time with."

Akane slowly registered everything he just said. "You really don't care if I can't cook?"

"HA of course I care. I like to eat. It just doesn't mean I will stop loving you over bad food."

Ranma leaned down and gave Akane a short kiss. He could taste her salty tears so when they broke the kiss he continue to give her little feathery kisses on her face where there were tears.

CLICK

It took them a second to realize what the sound was.

CLICK

CLICK

"NABIKI!"

"What's wrong little sister? I swear the lightening was great."

"Ranma please take these into Kasumi. She is probably worried that it took too long. I am going to have a little chat with my sister."

"Um… okay."

The day had gone from bad to worse. Nabiki would probably sell the photos tomorrow at school and that would mean Kuno and Kodachi would find out. He couldn't just use his girl form to avoid problems because while Kuno and Kodachi were too stupid to figure anything out, the rest of the class had. Or worse yet if she showed their fathers, then it would wedding bells. He really couldn't imagine being with anyone else except Akane, it was more he just didn't want to be married this young.

"Kasumi here are the things you needed." Ranma walked into the kitchen with the bag that had amazing remained mostly fine.

"Did something happen while you were out Ranma?"

"Oh well um not really." Ranma really didn't like making Kasumi worry.

"Nothing?"

"Well Akane is mad at Nabiki now because she took some pictures of us." Ranma didn't really want to elaborate further.

"Oh my and you two were being so cute together."

"What?"

Kasumi smiled sweetly at Ranma. "I am not naïve. I see that way you two look at each other now. Akane is looking healthier and it isn't just because of the training, although that is making her very happy. She loves you and it is obvious. You two aren't going to be able to keep it a secret."

"I would have liked to. I worry that the crazy people around us will hurt her."

"You will keep her safe and she will learn to stand for you and your relationship. She has always been able to stand up for herself and her family, she is strong and brave, but she needs confidence in herself as part of a couple. It will come, don't worry."

"What about your father and mine?"

"I will help you there. Please trust me Ranma."

"I do Kasumi. You have always been so kind."

"Well I am going to get dinner finished and later Nabiki might not think I am so kind."

Ranma's eyes widen a little. Not too many people argued with Kasumi. "Thank you. Um would you like some help?"

"Yes that would be nice. Can you slice those carrots?"

"Yeah no problem." Ranma calmly walked over to the sink and filled a cup with cold water and then dumped in on his head.

"Ranma, you know that really isn't necessary."

"Maybe but there are just some things I prefer doing as a girl and cooking is one of them."

"Okay then. Get started."

Akane was fuming at Nabiki. "What do you plan on doing with those?"

"Oh the usual."

"You can't do that. It will ruin everything."

"What do you mean everything sis? You mean that wasn't a one-time thing? What have you and Ranma been up to?" Nabiki sounded coy, maybe even more so than usual.

"Nothing! Just leave us alone."

"So you aren't denying that you two are a couple now? Interesting. No insults about him or leave ME alone? It is leave US alone now?" Nabiki was starting sound more shocked that coy. Could her sister really be ready to admit her feelings for Ranma.

"Shut up Nabiki and answer me. What are you going to do with those photos?"

"You'll just have to wait and see sister dear." Nabiki strolled away from Akane. _Damn I am starting to feel guilty about this._

Akane sulked back into the house, heading towards the main room. _If our fathers find out about this we will be screwed._ As she walked by the kitchen she heard Kasumi talking to someone. She was shocked when she heard Ranma's female voice respond. Peeking into the kitchen quietly she saw Ranma slicing vegetables with an apron on over her favorite top.

"Ranma, what are you doing?"

Ranma looked up to see Akane standing in the doorway. "Um, well, um I just thought that since we took so long."

"Ranma offered to help me in here so that dinner would still be on time and I am so glad she did." Kasumi said cheerfully.

It always amazed Ranma that Kasumi and a few other people just switched easily and comfortably between pronouns when his gender changed. He usually didn't think of himself as anything except a guy although it was getting easier to just be a girl sometimes. He wasn't sure exactly how Akane thought of him as a girl. She was comfortable talking to him and she didn't seem to mind that sometimes he just preferred his girl form, like when eating parfaits or shopping. In fact sometimes it was just funny to go shopping with her as a girl, he would try to act particularly girly to annoy her and to keep other guys from hitting on her. If she was irritated with him then she didn't notice the approving looks she got these days as she walked past men. He hated that.

"Do you want me to help too?" Akane asked hopefully.

"NO WAY! WE ARE DOING GREAT IN HERE WITHOUT YOU." The panic in Ranma's voice was obvious.

Akane fumed, "OH SO YOU CAN HELP BUT I CAN'T?"

"That's right, we all want to live."

"Ranma," Kasumi called to her sweetly, "Akane should help us. How about you start the rice, Akane? I will show you how to use the rice cooker."

"Are you sure she can't screw that up?" Akane fumed at Ranma and as soon as the words had left his mouth he regretted them. Dejectedly he looked down and muttered, "Sorry," then left the room.

"Are you okay Akane?" Kasumi was disappointed in both of them, "Ranma seems to feel bad for saying the things he said."

"He shouldn't have said them in the first place. I'll show him."

Kasumi sighed and carefully moved all the other food away from where Akane was standing. Everything else was done and just needed to simmer for a little while. "Okay take a deep breath and let's get the rice done."

"I can do this." Akane declared pushing up her sleeves.

"Focus Akane, don't let your anger at Ranma distract you."

Akane froze and stared at Kasumi. That was exactly the kind of thing Ranma always said to her while she was training. She took a couple of deep breaths and finally looked at her sister feeling a little calmer.

Kasumi calmly watched as Akane measured the rice and water and started the rice cooker. "See you did great and rice is such an important part of our meal."

"You gave me a really easy job like when Ranma's mother had me boil water." Akane looked a little sad, "I don't think I will ever get to the point where I can make a whole meal."

"You know Akane, before Ranma and his father came to stay with us you never really cared that you couldn't cook. It is natural to want to make a nice meal for someone you care about but it takes time and patience to learn. You will get there."

"It is embarrassing that Ranma can cook better than I can."

"There are a lot of men who can cook great. Don't think of it as something you have to be better than someone else at, just think about what you can do and how you can slowly improve that. Start with the basics and master those first."

It was starting to scare her how much like Ranma her sister sounded. Sweeter and kinder and more encouraging but still saying the same things.

"Okay I will try."

"Great," Kasumi smiled at her sister. _Ranma has been so good for her, she just doesn't realize it yet._

Dinner that evening started off strained as Ranma kept looking at his rice like he was expecting it to suddenly explode.

"It's fine Ranma." Akane growled at him. "Why are you still a girl anyway?"

"I didn't want to waste hot water by taking a bath so I didn't really see a reason to change back before training." He carefully tasted the rice. It actually was fine. "Hey this is edible Akane."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment? Jerk."

"Well uh yeah it is."

"Oh, well thank you I guess.

"Awe the lovebirds have made up." Nabiki had a nasty gleam in her eye.

"Lovebirds? Have you two finally admitted your true feelings for each other? Wonderful, we can have the wedding …." Genma didn't get to finish his statement as he was picked up and tossed into the pond.

"We not getting married."

"Like I would make up with a jerk like that."

"Uncute Tomboy."

"Pervert"

Soun looked down at his rice, "I guess they really don't like each other."

Ranma quickly finish and stormed off to the dojo.

"Nabiki will you help clean up the table and kitchen tonight." Kasumi continued on as if nothing had happened.

"I have something I need to do."

"I could really use the help it won't take long I promise."

Nabiki was disappointed that she might miss getting pictures of an actual make up scene, sighing she picked up her plate and followed her sister into the kitchen. When she got there her sister was staring at her.

"Why do you do that?"

"Whatever to you mean?"

"They are trying so hard to figure things out between them. All they need is time and space, which no one seems to be willing to give them. They are so wonderful together whenever they think no one knows."

"I know they are. I just think it is about time they admit it."

"Maybe they have, maybe they are right that telling people and being a normal couple is impossible for them."

"And maybe if those other girls knew they would finally give up."

"What if you are wrong and they try to hurt Akane? Or what if our fathers force them to marry and because they are so angry that they can't be happy." Kasumi hoped her sister would realize that she had the power to harm the still tenuous relationship.

"Fine, I won't destroy the pictures but I won't take them to school tomorrow either. You know they will not be able to keep it a secret for long. They are lucky father and Genma are pretty dense."

"Thank You Nabiki."

"I'm really not that awful."

"Oh I have always known that." Kasumi smiled again at her sister who she knew deep down really wanted their little sister to be happy.

They finished cleaning up and Nabiki returned to her room to think about what she should do. Technically she had only promised not to take them to school tomorrow. The day after that was still fair game.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer - **I do not own Ranma 1/2 and do not profit from this piece.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I know it is a little on the short side. I will try to post another chapter tomorrow if I can.

Chapter 7 – You are magnificent

Akane didn't show up at the dojo to train so Ranma climbed up to her window. She knocked on the window and hoped Akane would open it.

She saw Ranma still in girl form outside her window. Sighing heavily and glaring she slide the pane to the side. "What do you want Ranma?"

"You skipped training."

"Why would you want an uncute tomboy out there with you?"

Akane didn't seem as mad right now so Ranma climbed into her room and put her hands on her shoulders holding Akane in place. "I thought we had this conversation?" When Akane gave her a confused look but didn't get mad she continued, "Remember, you are uncute when you are mad at me and I love that you are a tomboy. I do have to say when you are mad at anyone that isn't me, you are magnificent."

She looked at her with wide eyes. "Really?"

Ranma lifted one corner of her mouth in a lopsided grin and blushed. "Yeah, your battle aura is stunning."

Akane put her arms around Ranma's neck and hugged her fiercely. Ranma was shocked that Akane felt comfortable hugging his girl form like this but that didn't prepare her at all for what Akane did next. Akane leaned back from the hug and kissed Ranma smacking against her lips. Ranma froze and didn't return the kiss. _Does she know what she is doing? _Ashamed Ranma pulled back and bolted out the window and climbed onto the roof.

"RANMA!" _What is wrong now?_ It took a couple of seconds for it to dawn on Akane what she had done. She didn't think of Ranma differently when he was a girl but she knew that although he sometimes forgot, he was more conscious of it than her.

A ladder was always propped up against the house so that they could easily get up the roof when Ranma hid up there. She ran as fast as she could through the house and around to the ladder. Climbing it quickly she carefully walked over to sit down beside her fiancé.

"I'm sorry Ranma. I shouldn't have done that without asking you first."

"Why did you do it?" She almost didn't hear the question since Ranma had her head buried against her knees.

"Well I had been thinking about it the last couple of days and wondering what it would be like and then when you said I was magnificent I just wanted to kiss you. So I did."

"You just wanted to?"

"Ranma I told you, I have only known you with the curse. I don't really think about it much anymore, it is just you. Can I sit closer to you?"

"Um yeah I guess."

"I didn't realize it would upset you so much. I won't do it again."

"It really shocked me. I know what you said about the curse and all, I just assumed you meant that I was more like a friend when I was a girl. I didn't think you might consider doing any of the things we do when I am a boy."

"Have you ever thought about it?"

"Even when I look like a girl I feel like a 17 year old boy inside so um yeah I think about it."

"Um would you uh well maybe like to…" Akane couldn't finish her sentence she was blushing so much.

Ranma eyes widen again in shock. "You mean…"

"Well uh yeah."

Ranma turned her head to face Akane better. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am."

Ranma slowly leaned in toward Akane but had trouble going through with it so Akane remembered the way male Ranma would hold her face sometimes, and did that, pulling her the rest of the way to meet her lips. The kiss stayed gentle and sweet as the two became used to the new sensation. After a few moments they pulled apart again. Akane smiled at Ranma briefly and then frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"It just isn't fair."

"Huh?"

"Your lips are softer than mine."

Ranma stared at her for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. "I don't even do anything."

"Shut up." Akane punched her but neither her words nor her punch had much anger behind them. Finally she just sighed and laughed a little then muttered, "It really isn't fair at all."

From a rooftop next door an old Amazon witch saw the whole thing taking place on the Tendo roof. "Oh darling granddaughter, that is something you will have a great deal of trouble competing with."

Ranma and Akane sat up on the roof a little longer and waited for the stars to come out before deciding to go ahead and get in at least a little training. Afterwards Ranma was in the bathroom staring into the mirror, still a girl, thinking about earlier on the roof. What she saw in the mirror was so different compared to being a guy. The red hair instead of black, the shortness, and not to mention the breasts just made it hard to believe that Akane could look at this and still see him inside. The kiss had been strange, not terrible, just an unusual sensation. He had gotten used to how it felt to press his male lips against hers. Poking the female lips he saw in the mirror, he decided they probably were a little fuller and according to Akane were softer. Ranma didn't think he would go out of his way to kiss her again while female but overall it wasn't that bad.

Climbing in the bathtub, she became he again and Ranma relaxed to soak his muscles.

Akane was in her yellow pajamas and sitting on her bed reading a new book Kasumi had bought her. She was having a great deal of trouble focusing on the story in front of her as her mind kept drifting back to the roof. She was still shocked at herself. For a year she had wanted Ranma to kiss her and whenever she thought about it she always imaged his male side only. She had only very recently even considered what it might be like with his female counterpart. Although she had been able to fix the embarrassment that she had caused Ranma, she still felt bad about just doing it without even considering his feelings.

It really was mildly irritating that Ranma's female form looked more feminine than her own body. Years of strength training had given her great muscles but she wasn't skinny and her thighs were powerful but also a little thick as was her waist. She didn't dislike the way she looked; it just got under her skin a bit when she watched Ranma in his petite, cute little female body win vicious martial arts battles. Even as a girl he was still stronger and faster than she was. Kissing her had felt different but not in a bad way, just different. She was used to angling her head upwards towards Ranma's face and having their heights closer to the same made things a little different. She felt more in control this time. Not that boy Ranma was ever pushy or controlling; it was just seemed easier to take control. She wasn't really opposed to trying it again and wondered what that meant about her.

With a look of determination, Akane dug through her drawers and found lip balm that Nabiki had given her for Christmas last year. She remembered her sister trying to embarrass her by commenting on needing soft smooth lips for her fiancé. _I guess it couldn't hurt right?_ She thought maybe if she wore it at night then no one would know.

Back at the Cat Café, Cologne knocked on Shampoo's door and entered, not actually caring if Shampoo gave her permission or not. It was one of the perks of being old you could pretty much get away with whatever you wanted. "Shampoo we need to talk."

Shampoo heard the knock and frantically started looking for something to cover her neck. She had not yet told her grandmother about Ranma hurting her. There were bruises on her neck that were starting to appear and getting darker every time she looked in the mirror. She had hidden them so far with one of the Chinese style high collar shirts she frequently wore. Her grandmother entered as she was wrapping her hair towel around her neck.

"What do we need to talk about great-grandmother?"

"You have not mentioned Ranma today? Have you not tried to see him?"

"No great-grandmother I not see future husband today." She felt bad for lying to her elder but she was ashamed to tell her that the man she wanted as her husband had attacked her with the intent to harm her.

"Well I did and I think you need to tell me more about Jusenkyo, Ranma and Akane seem to have returned closer than before."

Shampoo looked down at the ground and told her version of the events. "Great-grandmother know Shampoo under spell of egg and taken to China. Ranma and others come to China, fight Saffron and rescue Shampoo. I no remember much until after Ranma save me."

"Child I know most of this and if Ranma saved you why is he not here spending time with you instead of Akane?"

"Ranma also save Akane. Akane weak and always need saving. Stupid girl must like being weak and she act sick so Ranma feel guilty and stay near her."

Weak was never Cologne's impression of Akane. Her skills were certainly more basic that Shampoos but the girl had proven several times to be very strong willed.

"I hope you are telling me the truth great-granddaughter. I am heading to the bath to soak these old bones, give me your towel and I will return it to the bath."

"I will do later."

Cologne narrowed her eyes at Shampoo, convinced that the girl was hiding something. She could see the nervous aura building around her.

"Shampoo, tell me what it is you are hiding."

Shampoo slowly removed the towel from around her neck and Cologne's eyes widened when see could see the bruising. "What happened child?"

Tears began dripping down the purple haired girl's face. "Shampoo see husband with Akane and get mad. Try to talk to Ranma. Akane pull hair and Shampoo slap hussy." She dropped her head in her hands and sobbed while Cologne waited patiently for the girl to continue. "Ranma scary. Choke Shampoo until Akane make stop."

"Oh my child, it may be best if you leave Ranma alone for a few days."

Nodding dejectedly Shampoo used the towel to wipe her face. "Something terrible is wrong with husband."

Cologne only nodded and left her granddaughter to get some sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer** - I don't own Ranma 1/2 and do not profit from this work.

Once again thank you to those who have reviewed. I am glad I decided to post this. I had 16 chapters completed but I am now making some changes based on your reviews. As always I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 8 – First day back

School the next morning started off as usual. Ranma was running late and Akane was yelling at him to hurry up. Kasumi handed them lunches as they ran past and out the door. When Ranma hopped on the fence Akane frowned at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Ranma did a quick somersault off the fence to run beside her. "Why did you frown?"

"It really is nothing. I just want to be able to do that."

"If you can do everything I can do what will I do to impress you?"

Akane gave him a dirty look, rolled her eyes but then laughed anyway. "It looks fun."

"It is fun." Ranma turned his cocky grin on her. "Seriously though you did great on the park wall. That is fun too."

"Yeah it is." Akane loved the wall at the park, it really showed her how anything can be used to train and it meant Ranma did want her to have fun training too. "Watch out Ranma, we are almost to the lady with the ladle."

"Thanks. How does that lady manage to hit me at least once a week?" He sighed and moved to the opposite of the street.

Sure enough, there she was. _Why does she throw water in the street anyway? _

They made it to the school grounds on time. Now they just needed to make it to their classroom without incident. Surprisingly Kuno didn't stop them this morning so they made their way into the building along with the other students.

"Ranma honey." Ranma turned toward the sound of Ukyo's voice.

"Hi Ucchan."

"I haven't seen you in so long, you don't come in for Okonomiyaki anymore."

"Oh well after China we didn't really do much." Ranma noticed that Akane was getting really tense beside him.

"Well come by soon hun, I've missed you. I am only coming to school half days so that I can go open the restaurant earlier."

"Sure, sounds good."

Ukyo turned to head toward her classroom and Ranma reached out and gently touched Akane's elbow. Rubbing along her arm quickly and affectionately. Leaning he whispered, "Don't be jealous."

"Why would I be jealous?"

He gave her that irritating cocky grin again, "Oh well my mistake."

The morning went well, Ranma only had to lose sight of Akane when she changed for gym period. He could feel himself getting nervous but was able to mostly ignore it. When she emerged from the changing room with friends he was able to relax. The girls were playing volleyball while the boys were working on gymnastics. The gym teacher said they would switch next week with the girls and Ranma felt better knowing that for at least 2 weeks he would be able to keep track of her during gym class too. Concentrating in class was harder than he thought it would be and even harder than it was last year. He would start to daydream as usual when class became boring but now he would think about Akane even more that before. He would rather be training with her, talking to her or even better kissing her than be in class right now.

"Saotome!"

"Huh?" Ranma finally noticed the gym teacher was trying to get his attention.

"Stop staring at your fiancé and take your turn."

Ranma turned bright red and mounted the parallel bars and began the routine they were supposed to do. He couldn't resist showing off a little and flipped over the bars, turning twice before grabbing the bars again perfectly and continuing the routine.

The guys all made ego boosting ohs and ahs, this was a big part of the reason Ranma actually liked gym. He was just plain good at it and enjoyed the attention. Akane saw the little performance and shook her head but couldn't help smile a little bit too. He really was fun to watch. "Idiot," she mutter to herself.

Ranma felt the slight tightening again after gym but fortunately it didn't have to last very long. He took deep breaths and mentally repeated that she was close by and fine. It would help if he could touch her but that really wasn't a good idea at school. At school even normal couples weren't supposed to be affectionate and Ranma really hated the principal, who would probably do something particularly embarrassing to Akane and him.

Ranma's friends, Hiroshi and Daisuke, approached him, "Ranma, are you going to eat in the café?"

"Nah, Kasumi sent lunches with us this morning."

"Oh well, we will go grab our lunch, where you want to meet? The roof?"

"I will probably eat by the tree."

"With Akane?"

Ranma shrugged, "She has my lunch so I got to get it from her anyway."

"Why does she have it?"

"She didn't trust me not to get in a fight and ruin it."

Both laughed, "That is pretty smart of her."

Akane walked out of the girls' locker room and waved at Ranma and his friends. Ranma just pushed off the wall and followed her. His friends just stood staring after him.

"Something is different."

"Yeah I think so too. Let's hurry so we can see what is up with them."

At their lockers Ranma got his lunch out while Akane got hers, they then headed outside to eat.

Akane's friends were already at the tree and all raised their eyebrows when Ranma sat down with his back to the tree too. He wasn't exactly sitting beside Akane. He was more around the tree so that he was facing about 90 degrees away. Yuka leaned over and whispered to Akane, "So is Ranma joining us?"

Akane shrugged and opened her lunch. _People are going to talk if we eat lunch together but I really don't want to ask him to leave._

"Oh look here comes Hiroshi and Daisuke, maybe they will join us too." Akane looked over to where Sayuri was pointing.

"Hiroshi has gotten better looking since last year."

"Makoto! So you really think so?" Shikako asked.

"Well yeah. Hey Ranma. Has Hiroshi been working out? He looks more muscular than last year."

Ranma just stared at Makoto. "How would I know?"

Yuke looked surprised at Ranma, "Well aren't you friends?"

"Yeah, but we don't exactly talk about things ya know."

From several yards away they heard Daisuke's voice, "Alright! Leave it to Ranma to sit with all the ladies."

"He is just over here because Akane is. So that means we get to sit with the others."

Two of the girls giggled, two scoffed and both Ranma and Akane rolled their eyes. The two guys sat down with the girls so in order to actually face his friends Ranma had to shift his position a little and was sitting closer to Akane. The group chatted with the boys adding considerably to the gossip which the girls found entertaining. Daisuke tried flirting with Akane's friends, although he wasn't very good at it, they took pity on him. He was one of Ranma's friends and all of Akane's friends seemed to realize that if they were nice to the guys they might join them again. They could tell Akane seemed more relaxed and happy with Ranma there.

Classes after lunch were not as easy to get through since he didn't have all of them with Akane. She went to Home Economics and as soon as she was out of sight he started to feel worried. He didn't remember anything that his teacher was trying to say at the front of the class. Twice during class he sent Ranma to the hall for not paying attention. The second time Ranma gave into his urge to check on Akane and sneaked to the cooking rooms and peeked into the window on the door. He couldn't help but smile, Akane was looking angry and black smoke was rising out of her oven but she was safe so he quietly left before he got caught.

Their last class of the day was together so it was easy to gather their things after class and walk home.

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"You are going to see Dr. Tofu today right?

"Yeah." Ranma looked thoughtfully at Akane for a minute before speaking again, "Um do you think you could, well ya know, maybe go… ya know… with me?"

"Sure Ranma."

"Thanks"

They arrived at the clinic and greeted them and left to make some tea.

"Are you okay Ranma?"

"Yeah I think so." He reached for her hand and pulled her to his side.

She leaned into him resting her head on his chest. Dr. Tofu started to come back in when he saw them through a small window in the door. Blocking his aura, he just watched them for a few minutes. What he saw only surprised him in that the last he had heard they were still shy around each other. He knew they had the potential to be wonderful together. Actually he always figured that once they put all the energy they spent on arguing into making each other happy instead things would progress quickly. He watched the couple share a kiss and waited until they parted to make a little noise signaling his return.

The doctor served tea and then asked Ranma to sit down and describe everything that happened at Jusenkyo. "Akane I must ask that when Ranma tells this you remain silent. I need to hear everything from Ranma's point of view, so don't correct him or attempt to make him feel better about anything that happened yet."

She took a deep breath and visibly shuttered, "Alright."

Ranma slowly went through the events in the order they happened to him. When he got to the part where the fake Akane entered the bath with him he looked guiltily at Akane. It was really hard but she managed to keep quiet. She was really tired of others being so callous with her body. What she had never realized was that Ranma didn't know for a long time that Akane survived the drowning. Then she heard about how he had found her, saved her and only to think she had died again trying to save him. The rest she knew very well, Ranma had fought to revive her by fighting and defeating Saffron, once again thinking he didn't save her until she finally was able to move in his arms.

"Ranma, in a very short amount of time you thought Akane had possibly died three different times in 3 different ways. I am amazed you are doing as well as you are."

Ranma looked so miserable that Akane couldn't help herself. She had to reach across to him and embrace him in hug. He put his arms around her and did one of the things he like best, he rested his cheek on her head. She started crying startling both Ranma and the doctor. "Akane, what is wrong?"

"I'm okay, or I will be, I just never fully understood everything you had gone through and so much of it just for me."

Dr. Tofu reached out and put his hand on Akane's head and looked Ranma in the eyes. "As long as you both work together to help each other you will feel fine again."

Ranma just nodded.

"Akane, could you please go to the waiting room, I need to examine Ranma a little further and I think it would be better if you were not in the room." Dr. Tofu stood and guided Akane out of the room keeping a keen awareness of Ranma's aura as he did so. Ranma definitely became somewhat tense but otherwise appeared to be holding himself together. _Ranma does seem to trust me_ so _he is not immediately worried._

When he got to the waiting room with her, he leaned over and very quietly spoke, "Akane in 15 min could you scream?"

"What? Why? No that will scare Ranma."

The doctor was impressed with how quickly Akane acted to defend and protect Ranma. "I need to be able to see for myself his reaction in order to help him better. While l am sure he will panic, I don't think he will get violent as long as when he reaches you, and finds you safe. This is kind of a controlled test."

"Oh… um… okay." She still hated to do that to him.

"Thank you. This is going to sound strange but also don't let Ranma touch you when he get out here."

The doctor return to his examination room and chatted with Ranma about the day at school. "You won't be able to check on Akane every day during the classes that you are apart. We need to work on a way to control your symptoms so that you don't have to give in to the need to see her. How are you feeling now?" Dr. Tofu had been regularly taking Ranma's pulse as they spoke. His heart rate was higher but not dangerously so.

A scream pierced the air, it was definitely Akane. Ranma moved so fast that he knock the doctor off his chair as he ran to the door. He pulled the door off its hinges and bolted for the waiting room.

Dr. Tofu calmly stood up and followed Ranma to where Akane was waiting.

Ranma burst into the waiting room scanning for the danger. He saw Akane standing there just looking at him with a worried face. "What happened? Are you okay? Who hurt you?" He rushed over to touch her but she dodged him. "What is the matter?"

Dr. Tofu grabbed Ranma's wrist and checked his pulse again and scanned his aura. The aura was absolutely scary. If there really had been danger Ranma was ready to attack without thinking.

"I'm sorry Ranma." Akane looked ready to cry again.

"Wha..?"

"It is my fault Ranma, I asked Akane to scream. I wanted to be able to see your reaction."

"She is fine then?"

"Yes she is perfectly fine. That was an amazing scream by the way Akane." As soon as he was done telling Ranma that Akane was fine she ran into his arms. The doctor still couldn't believe the wonderful change between the two. He gently took Ranma's arm again, "Don't let go of her." He monitored his patient's vitals as they returned to normal. The aura was different, it stayed elevated and active until Akane touched him and took longer to return to normal.

"Both of you come back tomorrow and I think I will have something that can help you but Ranma time will be the best help. You are going to have to trust Akane, that she can be safe even when you are not around."

"I have been training her."

"Good that will probably help quite a bit."

The couple left and Dr. Tofu watched as Ranma never stopped touching her, eventually just holding her hand. He felt bad for having scared him so much.

"Hey Ranma?" Akane still felt really bad for putting Ranma through that back in the doctor's office.

"Don't apologize again, you and your family have always trusted him and since I met him he seems like a really good doctor. Well except for when Kasumi is around." He hated the way he felt when she had screamed but if it would help the doctor figure out what to do, then he really was fine with it.

"Fine, how about I buy you a snack."

"That sounds great! Don't be mad but some Okonomiyaki sounds really good."

"Yeah I guess that would be okay. I like Ukyo, I just wish your dad hadn't made a deal with her dad too."

"Pop is an idiot and a cheat."

They walked in silence until they got close to Ukyo's shop. Akane was very aware that they were still holding hands and although she liked it she knew that it would just be another way to upset someone who might want to hurt them. When she pulled her hand out of his, he gave her a bit of a frown but didn't say anything.

Ranma's stomach growled when the smell from inside the shop drifted past his nose. "Yum, this smells really great." Ranma walked straight to the little counter area where he always sat and Akane sat down beside him.

"Hi Ucchan." Ranma gave her a rather charming smile out of habit because it usually got him a free meal. Then he remembered Akane was paying so it didn't matter. _Oh well it is probably better if I act normal._

"Hi Ranma honey. Hi Akane. Two?"

"Yup"

"I know your favorite hun but what would you like today Akane?"

Akane placed her order while struggling not to get irritated by the overly familiar way Ukyo always behaved around Ranma. _He just thinks of her as a friend, in fact mostly like a male friend instead of a female friend._

Ranma turned in his seat and faced Akane better while he chatted with both girls. They mostly talked about their first day back and being upperclassmen this year. "I wonder where Kuno was today."

"Missing his attention Akane?"

"Not at all. It was nice to make it to class in plenty of time today."

"The principal wasn't there either," Ukyo supplied, "That is his father right?"

"Hmmm, yeah it is. Maybe there is trouble in Kuno land."

"Ranma, that isn't very nice. Even if we don't really like them we shouldn't talk poorly about them."

"Yeah okay."

Ukyo eyed both of them. She heard a rumor that they didn't argue today at school. A couple of Akane's friends came in right after school; Ranma and Akane's behavior was the top of the list for conversation topics. She served up their food, making sure it was obvious that Ranma's was a heart like always.

Ranma grabbed his right away and started shoving it in his mouth. Ukyo caught a quick frown from Akane. Ukyo knew Akane hated that she could cook something Ranma loved.

"Hey Ucchan, I should probably say thank you for bringing over some of this after we got back from China. I was in a pretty bad mood, so um sorry if I was mean to you or anything."

"You are welcome, I was happy to bring some for my Ranma honey."

"Uh yeah okay. I wasn't too mean to you or anything was I?"

"You were grouchy for sure but you weren't really mean to me. I was hoping you would come to the restaurant over break but I never saw you."

"We were busy training."

"You were training together? Hun if you needed a sparring partner, I would have been a better choice than Akane."

Ranma realized he shouldn't have brought up the training, he had just been looking for an excuse for staying so close to the house all the time.

"Ranma is helping me get my strength back after what happened to me in China"

"Oh well I see."

"We should get home before Kasumi worries."

"Um yeah we should."

Akane paid for the meals and they said their goodbyes. Kurenai came out of the storeroom where he had been doing inventory. "Was that Ranma and Akane?"

"Yes, they came by for a snack."

"Wow, they didn't fight. I thought it might have been someone else." He looked down at his current dress and started brushing dust and flour off the front.

"Something is definitely wrong with them."

"I can follow them." Kurenai starting thinking about which disguise would be best.

"Yes," Ukyo smiled, "find out what has changed."

Kurenai followed the pair most of the way to their home and there really was only one way to describe their behavior. They were a couple, they chatted and smiled at each other, laughed together and most importantly they were both finding little ways to touch each other. They just looked really happy. This was thrilling for Kurenai because if Ranma choose Akane then Miss Ukyo would be forced to find someone else. Unfortunately she would also be very sad to find out that Ranma was clearly in love with Akane. He jumped up from his current hiding spot and started to return to the restaurant.

A woman gave a yelp as the post office box she was going to put her letter in moved and walked down the street.

Upon arriving back at the restaurant he climbed out of the box and slowly walked in. _What am I going to tell her?_ Ukyo looked up expectantly and he worked to choose he words carefully. "Well they just walked home."

"That's all?"

"Um they looked like they were getting along well and being nice to each other."

"They didn't argue at all?"

"No"

There were no customers in the place so Ukyo decided to close early and see if she could find out more information. She made her way to the Cat Café to see if Shampoo thought things were strange.

Shampoo saw Ukyo walk into the café and frowned. She looked fine but maybe Ranma had done something to her too. "Why you here?"

"Hello to you too. I came to ask you something about Ranma honey."

"He not your honey, he Shampoo future husband."

"I just want to know if he has seemed strange."

"Ranma attack silly okonomiyaki girl too?"

"No, he attacked you?"

"Shampoo saw Akane holding future husband's hand and slapped the silly hussy. Ranma was mean to Shampoo and try to choke. Akane make him stop and then silly girl pour cold water on me. She have husband under some kind of spell because he even let that silly girl kiss him."

"They kissed?"

"I tell you it have to be spell. Why Ranma kiss Akane when he could have much prettier Shampoo?"

"Or me?"

"No, not you."

It was almost time for the Cat Café to close so Cologne put out the closed sign and told Shampoo to go get Mousse from the kitchen where he was doing dishes.

Everyone sat around one of the café tables before Cologne finally spoke again. "I think it is time I heard everything that happened in China."

"Great-grandmother?"

"My dear granddaughter I don't think you lied to me, but I think there is more to the story."

"All that matters is that Ranma come to China to rescue Shampoo then defeat god, proving he is strongest and best for husband."

"He defeated a god?" Ukyo sat there with an awed expression on her face.

"Saffron is what might be called a demi-god but yes basically." Cologne explained. "Mousse, what else happened?"

"We all went to rescue Shampoo and help find the Jusenkyo guide," Mousse explained to Ukyo then turned to Cologne and started describing the entire trip. "Ranma was the one who trapped Shampoo in another egg but when she hatched I used a mirror so that she didn't have to look at either me or Ranma, she would be herself."

"That was very selfless of you Mousse, you could have had everything you wanted."

"I love Shampoo just the way she is. I don't want to force her to love me like she tries to force Ranma to love her." Mousse said the last part with a mixture of sadness and venom in his voice. Mousse had mostly kept his distance from Shampoo since they got back and she declared that now more than ever Ranma should be her husband. She seemed to forget how he fought for her too and she really failed to see that everything Ranma did was for Akane. Even when they found Shampoo and saved her he had been focused primarily on saving Akane who had been shrunk down to doll size.

Mousse looked again at Shampoo, "You didn't see how crazy Ranma was when he thought Akane had died trying to save him. He didn't care that he was stuck in that weird egg stuff and his arms were trapped. All he cared about was that Akane was gone."

"But he was able to save her after defeating Saffron correct?"

"Yes great-grandmother, he got Akane to cold water."

Mousse interrupted again, "But remember she didn't wake up right away. He was a mess. I poured some hot water on him while he just held her and cried. She eventually woke up and everyone was relieved. Even you Shampoo, you may say you hate her but you don't, she was very brave to risk her own life to save Ranma."

Ukyo finally spoke up, "So are they really in love or are they under some spell?"

Cologne remained silent. She knew the two young ladies would not like what she had to say. She needed to speak to the other village elders. Ranma's defeat of Saffron changed things considerably, especially if the only reason he defeated him was to save the girl he truly loved. If Shampoo were to do something worse than slap the girl, Ranma could seriously hurt Shampoo. If they tried to force Ranma to come to China against his will, he could cause considerable damage. Not one of their greatest warriors could have accomplished with training and planning what Ranma had managed to do with sheer will and considerable guts. Ranma was a powerful ally or a fearsome enemy and she was certain she knew what the other village elders would prefer. Shampoo would not like what that would mean.

"They are definitely under a spell." Shampoo didn't look absolutely sure anymore, "We should break spell so Ranma kiss Shampoo instead of hussy."

"My claim on Ranma is more valid than yours. If they are under a spell, he will surely prefer me to you." The two girls glowered at each other.

"Well they are acting a little bit like they did when they ate those love mushrooms." When Shampoo looked at him hopefully Mousse knew he shouldn't have said that.

"Well if it is love mushrooms that is easy enough to fix. I will get some of the remedy and it should be easy for either Ukyo or you Shampoo to get them eat them. That will break the spell quickly." Cologne frowned at her granddaughter, "I think maybe it should be Ukyo. Ranma and Akane might avoid you dear granddaughter."

With a plan in place Ukyo left and Shampoo went to her room to sulk.

"Elder, I think I have saved enough money to go back home to China."

"Are you sure you still want to?"

"More than ever. Shampoo is never going to love me as long as she thinks there is a chance with Ranma. I am tired of her ignoring the fact that I am strong too. Ranma mostly ignores her and she still wants him. She is going to be unhappy. It was obvious at Jusenkyo that Ranma loves Akane and Akane only. She just refused to see it."

"I hate that I must agree with you. Shampoo is going to end up very unhappy. If she ever gives up on him, do yourself a favor and don't let her turn to you. Make her fight for you too. If she has to win you then she will want you more. You young people are always too impatient for love. Thank you for what you did for her in China."

Cologne gave him the money he had earned, with just a little bit extra as another thank you.

Mousse left to pack before he could change his mind.

**The next chapter will appear tomorrow. It is done and edited already after some major changes. I just want to give it a final read through after letting it sit for 24 hours. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer as always - **Nope. Don't own Ranma 1/2 no matter how much I wish I did.

Chapter 9 - Wow

After Akane and Ranma arrived home they went to the dojo for training. Akane tried her hardest to hit Ranma but he still managed to dodge every punch and kick. She worked to vary her approaches, tried feigning and twisting to get better angles but the jerk still avoided her. It was infuriating.

Akane got closer to hitting him than he cared to admit. She really was improving and had apparently taken his promise very seriously. Ranma used the wall to bounce over her and grabbed her waist. She started to pivot and he stopped her. "Wait a minute. If you balance your weight differently and shift your hips a little more it will widen your stance giving you more power and better ability to see where your opponent might move."

"It almost sounds like you want me to hit you."

"Of course I want you to hit me," Ranma gave her waist a little squeeze, "not that I am looking forward to the bruise I will get and I still will not want to hit you back but if you can hit me you will be able to hit just about anyone."

Akane leaned back into Ranma and let his arms fold around her. "You will keep your promise though?"

"Yes" He tilted his head down and kissed the side of her neck sending shivers up her spine. "I said I won't want to, not that I wouldn't."

She could feel his breath on her neck and behind her ear. She felt like she could just melt and sighed quietly in the back of her throat.

She had made his favorite little noise that said she was feeling romantic. He had no idea what he had done to earn it but he wasn't going to ruin it by asking. Oh how he wanted to hear it again. He tightened his grip on her slightly and kissed her neck again, moving up to her ear. She did it again. _YES!_

Her heart was beating really fast and she was having trouble controlling her breathing. She was being held firmly against his chest and as petty as it was she really did have to admit that she loved his chest too. She had seen him shirtless a number times and he only seemed to get more toned as he continued to improve his skills. She heard herself moan out loud.

"Ranma"

"Hmmm?"

"We have to stop before someone comes looking for us."

"I don't want to."

Akane giggled. He almost sounded like a little kid complaining about having to put away his toys. _Did Ranma ever have toys? _She turned around in his arms and kissed him.

Ranma loved the feel of her lips and how soft she was when they kissed. Her body felt hard and powerful when she was fighting but as soon as she had relaxed into his arms she felt loose and soft. _Why did I ever call her sexless?_

He pushed her backwards into the wall he had recently ricocheted off of and kissed her more urgently. The guys thought it was funny to ask him how far he had gotten with Akane, one time they asked him if he had ever French kissed her. When he had looked at them with a clueless expression they had said 'you know like with tongue in her mouth.' At the time it sounded weird and maybe a little gross but he hesitantly pushed his tongue against her lips.

She felt his tongue touch her lips and it caught her so much by surprise that she gasp. As soon as her mouth open he shyly touched his tongue to hers. She didn't really know what to think so she didn't stop him. Her friends had talked about kissing guys like this but she wasn't really sure what she thought about the idea of a guy's tongue in her mouth. Since it was not just some guy's tongue but Ranma's she decided to not protest. He was so shy about this sort of thing and his day had been so hard on him that she only wanted to make him happy. Carefully she tried moving her tongue too. It actually felt kind of good and she let her tongue explore his mouth too.

His heart was racing. He couldn't believe she was letting him do this, it was amazing. He heard her moan again and completely lost his train of thought and just enjoyed the feeling of her lips on his. He felt her push against him with her hands and finally relented his assault on her mouth. He put his head against the wall beside hers with his arms on either side of her shoulders, essentially trapping her against the wall. He could hear her struggling to breathe as well. It was nice to know she was as affected as him. Once he caught his breath he said the only thing that was capable of coming to his mind.

"Wow"

"Yeah"

Akane felt light headed, probably from a lack of oxygen, but it was worth it. "Ranma we really do need to go inside. They will coming looking for us for dinner."

"Hold on, I am not sure I can walk yet."

Akane giggled and then started just laughing against his chest. She was pretty sure she would have some trouble walking too but she wasn't about to admit it.

"Shut up"

She turned her head and kissed his cheek causing him to smile. "I love you Ranma."

He pushed back from the wall and looked her with a very serious expression. "Oh good because if you did that with any other guy I would have to kill him."

Akane scoffed and freed herself from the wall, "Idiot."

It only took him a couple of seconds to catch up to her and get his arms around her waist turning and picking her up at the same time. He was nose to nose with her and couldn't resist giving her a quick kiss. "I love you too."

He put her down and they left the dojo. When they were half way to the house they heard Kasumi call out to them. "Oh good you are done just in time for dinner."

"Alright, let's go." Ranma jogged across the yard to get to the house and food faster.

Akane just smiled and continued walking calmly to the house. He wouldn't be her Ranma if he was romantic all the time but it was so fascinating to see how he had changed towards her since they finally admitted their feelings.

The next day Ukyo was absent from school. She packed a backpack early that morning and started her travel to the mushroom shrine. The long trek gave her a lot of time to think about Ranma and Akane. Shampoo had always been a little delusional when it came to Ranma, she was firmly convinced that he couldn't choose anyone else. Ukyo thought she was the best choice but she was certainly more pragmatic. Ranma rarely made it 15 minutes without insulting Akane, but when they were under the effects of the love mushrooms they were annoyingly lovey with all the hugging and touching each other constantly.

It made more sense that Ranma was being nice to Akane because she had apparently nearly died trying to save him. Continuing to insult her would be very rude, even for Ranma. That had to be all there was to it. Shampoo was a cat when she saw them supposedly kiss so maybe that wasn't really what happened. Akane probably figured this was finally her chance to trick Ranma into choosing her, guilt was a powerful weapon. She needed to find a way to get Ranma alone and remind him of how much better fiancé she was; he definitely needs a girl who can cook.

When she arrived at the shrine the mushroom expert greeted her with a friendly smile and invited her into the shrine.

"What kind of mushrooms are you seeking? It is important to be careful and have me check all your mushrooms before you eat them because some are rather dangerous."

"Well I need an antidote. I think two of my friends ate love mushrooms."

"When did they eat them?"

"I don't know, maybe 2 days ago."

"Well my dear if they did eat them 2 days ago then the effects are likely permanent."

"PERMANTENT?"

"Well yes, I mean if you still think they are under the effect then it is likely because their feelings towards each other were real and the mushrooms only helped them realize it."

"You mean there is no way to fix it?"

"If they were already in love when they ate them then no there is no way to fix it."

"What if they weren't already in love?"

"The antidote will allow the effect to fade but they would have to eat it every day for a week. What makes you think they ate the love mushrooms?"

"They used to fight all the time but now they don't argue and are mostly nice to each other."

"They haven't decided to get married yet?"

"Not that I know of."

"Many couple who eat those mushroom get married very quickly as they cannot imagine life without each other. If you give them the antidote they may not start arguing immediately but they will be able to image life without the other."

"But last time they stopped acting funny immediately and yelled at each other."

"Last time? They have eaten them before?"

"Well yes, I came up here with them and their families and friends. Most of us passed out and someone sent Ranma and Akane to fetch the antidote. I remember waking up before they got back though."

"I remember that group. Those two were ready to have a wedding right here at the shrine while still affected and you think they have eaten them again? How did they get them?"

"I don't know."

"I will travel with you to get the antidote but do not expect it to work."

"Will anything bad happen to Ranma if he takes the antidote and it doesn't work?"

"No it is perfectly safe to eat from the sacred mushroom."

"OK, take me there."

Ranma and Akane were once again eating lunch out by the tree with their friends. Ranma had already finished his lunch in record time and was eyeing Akane's.

"You're not getting any of my lunch."

"Who says I wanted any?"

"The look on your face says it all. If you want more, go get some food from the café."

"Everything will be gone now."

"Well you are not going to be a pig and eat mine too."

Ranma huffed and turned from her muttering, "I'm not the pig."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Akane glared at her fiancé before returning to her lunch and her friends. She would mention to Kasumi that maybe she should put a little more in his lunch tomorrow.

"I wonder where Ukyo was today." Ranma comment to no one in particular.

Hiroshi laughed at his friend, "You just wish she was here to feed you."

Daisuke changed the topic away from his friend, as interesting as gossip about Ranma could be, "Hey guys I heard this morning that Principal Kuno and Upperclassman Kuno are both gone because the family decided to take an extended vacation somewhere."

"Well that explains why I haven't had to deal with Kuno's stupid wooden sword in the mornings."

The rest of the day passed quickly; Ranma and Akane were sitting in doctor's Tofu's office once again.

"I have an idea that might help you. I want to use acupuncture to realign you chi flows, I believe your nervous energy is blocking your normal flow and if we can train your chi to return to normal the panic attacks will be more controllable."

"Yeah okay, what do I need to do?"

"Just remove your shirt and lie down; I will take care of the rest. Akane, why don't you wait outside, it will not take very long."

Ranma pulled his red shirt off as well as his undershirt after Akane left the room. He stretched out on the exam table and waited for the doctor to begin. He could feel Tofu moving around him but could not feel anything else.

"There we go, all the needles are placed. We will leave them in for a little while so how about you tell me how school went today?" He saw Ranma shrug and start to talk but interrupted him, "You should avoid moving at all."

"Oh okay, um… mostly it was the same as yesterday. I felt strange when we had separate classes. Tight ya know and I got in trouble again for not paying attention."

"Did you go check on her again?"

"Yeah, she would hate to know that I have seen her ruin two projects now in Home Ec." He smiled remembering seeing her battle aura flare in frustration. "Doc, this isn't going to mess up my training is it? Slow me down or mess with my reflexes?"

"No it won't do any of that. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that I promised Akane that if she can land a hit on me while we are sparring, then I will actually try to hit her back." He grimaced, "I really don't want to but a promise is a promise so I can't back out. But if this is going to mess me up then I am not going to spar with her."

"Well I think she will find a way to land that hit but it won't be because of my treatment." Dr. Tofu thought that there was a good chance that Akane would get her hit in sooner than Ranma expected. "I am going to take the needles out now, just relax for a minute."

Again Ranma felt the doctor move around him but the thin needles triggered no sensation on his skin. He did feel more relaxed and less agitated. _I hope this really does help._

Ranma walked out of the examination room. Akane stood up and gathered their things. "Ready to go home?"

"Yup, all done."

"I am going to hit you today."

"Yeah right."


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer - ** I do not own Ranma 1/2 nor do I profit from this story.

Chapter 10 – Kunos' return

Three days later Kuno returned to school sporting tanned skin making him look more like his father. Ranma and Akane made a big mistake that day. They had starting holding hands so often when they were together that they didn't even think about it as they arrived at school. They realized what they had done when they heard a yell from behind them.

"Unhand Akane Tendo you foul cur. It sickens me that you have bewitched not only the pig-tailed girl but now sweet, innocent Akane Tendo. Prepare to pay dearly for your salacious actions."

Ranma pulled Akane away from the swinging sword and turned to face Kuno for what seemed like the thousandth time. He was really getting tired of this, unfortunately the guy was so idiotic that even when presented with clear evidence of Ranma's curse Kuno chose to believe somehow the pig-tailed girl was hidden away by Ranma. Kuno had always been one of his easiest opponents but the guy just refused to give up. Ranma almost felt bad about beating him up so often… almost. He thought about turning the fight over to Akane, she had also beaten Kuno multiple times. He didn't really fight her, she just fought him to keep him from hugging her or giving her flowers.

Akane watched Ranma dodging and circling Kuno. She really wanted to get in on the fight. Kicking Kuno was always fairly satisfying. She cautiously moved to mirror Ranma's position on the other side of Kuno.

Ranma saw Akane move into his field of vision. She was tensed and watching him and Kuno closely. _Well it looks like she wants in on this. Let's have some fun._

Akane saw Ranma hold up three fingers at her. She nodded understanding the signal. Yesterday during training in the dojo Ranma had started using numbers to identify different attack combinations and made her memorize them so that if he called out the number she would have to immediately do the combination. By the end of the exercise he had begun mirroring her movements as if they were facing an opponent together. It had been one of the most fun exercises he had used. He promised today to bring out a training dummy so that she would actually have something to hit with the attacks. _I guess Kuno gets to be that dummy._

She threw a left punch followed by one from the right and then jumped into the air spinning to build momentum into her kicked that landed directly on Kuno's chest. Ranma's mirrored attack caught him in the face, the combine force of the attack sent Kuno flying from the school grounds.

"That is in the direction of his house. Maybe he will land in the green turtle pond."

Ranma just laughed loudly.

Akane grinned widely, "Come on you loon, let's get to class."

A crowd had gathered as always when Ranma was fighting someone. There were murmurs of "Amazing", "Did they plan that?" "Were they holding hands when they got to school?" "They should fight together more often."

They tried to ignore the things that were being whispered around them as the day continued. Hiroshi and Daisuke both grilled him further about his actions and his relationship with Akane. When they asked about how they worked out the final attack Ranma only replied that they were training together.

Ranma and his friends had continued to join Akane and hers for lunch that week. Everyone seemed pleased with this arrangement. In fact yesterday Daisuke had managed to ask Yuke out on a date for Saturday evening. Ranma even suggested to Hiroshi that he ask out Mokoto, but he didn't think his friend had worked up the nerve yet.

Ranma wasn't sure what to think about how normal school had become. He had never spent this long attending school so having an entire group of non-marital artist friends felt unusual. He occasionally wondered if he might put them in danger just by being his friend. Akane's friends had never ended up in danger so he hoped that he could have this small piece of normal life.

Ukyo approached the group and felt left out. She never ate lunch at school but was tempted to start since it would mean some time with Ranma. She wasn't convinced that Ranma was under a spell as Shampoo seemed to be, when the two had been under the influence of the love mushrooms they touched constantly, cuddled in front of everyone and even agreed to marry. While they did seem more affectionate it just didn't look the same. If the manager of the mushroom shrine hadn't explained that there would be no harmful side effects from eating the antidote, she would never have agreed to try this.

"Hi guys, I brought some okonomiyaki for Ranma and Akane as a treat."

"Hey thanks Uc-chan." Ranma grabbed his and quickly stuffed it in his mouth. "Um… I don't think the mushrooms on top were cooked."

"I am trying a new recipe."

"Oh ok"

"Wait a new recipe with mushrooms?"

"Don't you want yours Akane?"

"I already ate all my lunch, sorry. Would someone else like it?" She had long ago stopped trusting free food. _Stupid Ranma, he probably just ate something that would have some weird effect on him._

Hiroshi held out his hands, "Sure it looks good."

Ukyo had no idea if the mushrooms would work if they weren't eaten by both Ranma and Akane. Great she was going to have to try again another time. The mushrooms were supposed to work right away so if only Ranma ate them maybe he would stop liking Akane right away but she wouldn't stop liking him. That could be problematic too. Ukyo watched the pair closely. Nothing seemed to have changed at all.

"Well I guess I need to be off."

"Bye Uc-chan, thanks for the food."

The rest of the group waved goodbye and started to gather their things to head back into the school. As they were walking back Akane leaned in to whisper to Ranma, "I wonder what that was all about."

"What do you mean, she was just being nice."

"Remember the various effects of the mushrooms from the mushroom shrine. Do you think she tried to give you a strange mushroom?"

"Well I don't feel any different and if she slipped me the love one, why would she give you the other dish?"

"Well Hiroshi ate the other one so if you start feeling affectionate towards him let me know. I could use a good laugh."

"That is not funny. I am not interested in guys."

Ukyo watched the pair from a tree after she said her goodbyes. They didn't look like they were acting differently at all. After the group disappeared she climbed down and left for the Cat Café. She needed to ask Cologne if about what would happen if the wrong person ate the mushrooms as well as tell the pair about how there seemed to be no change in Ranma.

Since his second visit with Dr. Tofu, Ranma was able to deal with being apart from Akane during school. He didn't feel relaxed but his heart didn't race and he was able to at least pretend to pay attention in class. He still didn't really like school but at least he wasn't being sent to the hallway. Dr. Tofu was going to continue to use acupuncture to realign his chi. They had also discussed Akane's training and the doctor pointed out that Ranma was trying to keep Akane happy by focusing on attacks but that she would need to improve her defenses as well.

After school today they made sure to wait until they were further from school before Ranma took hold of her hand.

"So it seems that what Dr. Tofu did to me is helping."

"Great, so you haven't checked on my other classes since then?"

"Nope, so you will have to tell me if you set any fires in Home Ec today."

"What? Jerk."

He just grinned at her.

"I look forward to the day I wipe that stupid grin off your face."

"Me too."

Akane tried really hard to stay irritated but it just wasn't possible. It was so easy to tell anymore when Ranma was teasing her that she really couldn't take it to heart.

From their left they heard a shrill and frankly rather evil laugh.

"So it is true, you have bewitched my darling Ranma you intolerable wench."

Ranma couldn't push the paranoid feelings down even though it was only Kodachi. He moved to shield Akane from any attack that might be coming.

Sure enough a bouquet of flower came flying through the air and Ranma kicked them away but still managed to get a face full of powder. _Oh shit_. He could feel his limbs moving slower until he fell over and couldn't move at all. _Damn paralysis powder of hers._

Akane moved into an on guard position and was prepared to keep Kodachi from getting near Ranma.

"Ohhh is the little girl going to fight me."

"N… n… n… o…o…" Came from Ranma on the ground as he forced what movement he could.

"I can take her Ranma."

"You could never beat me, the Black Rose. I will deal with you and then darling Ranma and I can live happily ever after."

"Tell me, did your brother land in your pond this morning? Just curious if Ranma and I hit where we were aiming."

Kodachi glared at her, "I don't understand my dear brother's fascination with an unattractive, untalented girl like you but Ranma's ability to overpower him is proof of how well suited he is for me. So you are welcome to my brother."

"No thanks."

"So you would rather fight me for Ranma? Well then let me make this quick."

"Kod…a..chi… st… op." Ranma again spoke brokenly from the ground.

"What my darling?"

"Ch…all…en..ge.. her."

"Oh a challenge, that sounds exciting. Akane Tendo I challenge you to a duel. The winner will get to date Ranma darling."

"Fine, on Friday in the school athletic court."

"I look forward to destroying you Akane Tendo. Goodbye for now my darling Ranma, on Friday we shall finally be together."

"Kodachi, aren't you forgetting something?"

"Whatever could you mean?"

"How about an antidote for your stupid powder? I am sure your darling Ranma would like to walk home now."

"Oh my dear of course." She walked over to Ranma and took a small container out of her pocket. It was lipstick. She applied some to her mouth and kissed Ranma solidly on the mouth. "Oh my darling, what a wonderful first kiss we have finally shared. I shall treasure it forever." She twirled her ribbon and caused black rose petals to swirl around the area. "Ho ho ho ho… until we meet again."

Akane rolled her eyes and sat down beside Ranma. "I am tempted to drag you home by your pig-tail. You should know better than to smash anything she throws at you."

"Oo… pp… s!"

"Don't bother trying to talk. You will just have to apologize when the powder finally wears off."

About 10 minutes later Ranma could start to move his limbs again. He quickly rolled over and spat on the ground wiping his mouth off with the back of the hand. "That girl is nuts."

Imitating Kodachi's voice Akane teased, "Oh my darling Ranma, didn't you enjoy our first kiss. Wasn't it everything you ever dreamed of, let me go compose a poem to our love."

"Shut up"

"Gah, that girl is hideous."

"That didn't count as a kiss. You're not mad at me?"

"I promised you that I would listen to you more and not get so mad when something clearly wasn't your fault. Besides I know you like my kisses better, right?" Her look dared him to disagree.

"Damn right I do. Yuck."

"Come 'Darling Ranma' let's get home and get our homework done. We have to train for the fight on Friday."

Ranma glared at her. "Stop that. Ugg."

Ranma was quiet most of the way home. He was trying to figure out how to prepare her for the fight. How the hell was he supposed to do that without attacking her directly. He just didn't think he could risk hurting her. He had only been thinking at the time of getting Kodachi to back off from going after Akane, now what the hell was he going to do?

"So Ranma, homework first or training?"

"Um I don't know, training I guess."

Akane smiled. She knew training would be his answer. He hated doing homework but the fact he had hesitated to answer meant he was also not looking forward to training her today. She went upstairs to put on her gi and then met Ranma in the dojo.

After their normal warm up he moved her to the number game again, giving her number combinations today instead. He started mirroring her again, pushing her to move faster and faster. By the time he let her stop she was breathing hard and had worked up a good sweat. She walked over and grabbed her water bottle taking a large drink and dumping some on her face.

Ranma was staring off away from Akane. He was trying to think of a way to help her build her defenses against Kodachi's attacks. Kodachi would use items from rhythm gymnastics and was far more experience and graceful with them than Akane. Akane would not have to use the items herself like he had when he fought Kodachi but her items were all rigged with dangerous extras.

Akane watched Ranma get out the ribbon. "You are going to practice snatching this thing away from me. This is her favorite item so getting rid of it will help."

"You have gotten it from her by letting it hit you."

"It hurts. I can't do that to you."

"Ranma, you have to. I can take it. Besides I need to build my stamina too."

Ranma took a deep breath, "Okay, I will try."

"Thank you"

Ranma started spinning the ribbon and then shot it towards her, she choose to just dodge it the first time. It had come at her too slow because he was still afraid of hurting her. "Ha missed me."

He smiled slightly and sent it at her again. She dodged again, trying to move closer and work her way into fighting range. He was putting more effort into the ribbon without thinking about it. Akane was being difficult and his competitiveness was kicking in slowly.

Akane saw Ranma narrow his eyes at her and make a better effort to hit her. _Finally_. This time instead of dodging she put her arm up to catch the ribbon. All she had to do was let it wrap around her forearm and then reach forward to grab it and pull away from Ranma. As soon as it wrap around her arm she felt pain and nearly cried out. She managed to stop herself and gave the ribbon and hard yank. She didn't manage to get the ribbon out of his hands but she at least caught him by surprise. She was beaming until he rushed over to look at her arm. "I am fine."

"Let me see."

"No"

"Now"

"No, I am a martial artist, I can take a hit."

Ranma's head was spinning, he had to see. He tackled Akane to the ground, held her down with his leg and pulled back her gi sleeve. There were small welts where the ribbon had hit her. His heart was pounding, he climbed off of Akane and sat facing away from her. "I'm sorry."

He stood up to leave but Akane used one of the new moves he taught her to flip him over onto the ground. She then did the only thing she could think of to keep him there, she sat on him. She grabbed his shirt and pulled his face towards her. "You will keep training me. You will not let me lose on Friday. You want me safe, then promise me you will keep me safe no matter what."

"Wha… um… I will always keep you safe."

"Promise me."

"I… I… I promise."

"Good now get your ass up and keep me safe by helping me actually fight someone. Help me find the weaknesses in my attacks and help me learn how to win a real fight. You will keep me safe by fully training me. You will keep me safe by being willing to let me get a bruise or two during training so that when I get one in a fight I won't be so distracted by it that I can't fight well anymore."

Ranma just stared at her. Her battle aura was bright blue and the look in her eyes was fierce; he didn't dare argue with her. When he didn't immediately answer she pulled more forcefully on his shirt bringing his nose close to hers.

"Got it?"

"Um I guess."

"We are going to spar now and I am going to break your stupid face." Akane stood up and stormed over to the opposite side of the dojo and prepared to start.

He took a couple of deep breaths after she got off of him and steadied his nerves. Her look of resolve scared him a little; he was actually worried she might hit him today. "You have won real fights before and you have gotten bruises during those fights. The weakness from Jusenkyo hasn't erased that." He set their timer and moved into position preparing for her attack.

She watched him closely and didn't attack right away. She thought of all the combinations he had made her do today and tried to think of a combination that he hadn't mirrored her on. She glared at him and starting thinking only in numbers. 2…4…6…8…2…1...4…3…9…7 and so on.

He dodged her attacks and loved that she was using the combinations he had taught her. She wasn't doing them in the order they have practiced which meant she was trying to outsmart him. _She is incredible, Kodachi isn't going to know what hit her._

About half way through their time she actually forced him to block. _Oh damn._ It was enough to boost her confidence and she pushed herself harder. Changing her focus just a little she watched his hips as well and was better able to predict what direction he was going to move. She faked a punch with her left arm and when he started to drop below it she struck out with her stronger right hand. She focused her energy through his head and hoped it connected.

Ranma saw the left arm come towards him and only had a second to register what was in front of his face before he flew backwards into the wall two meters behind him. He hit the wall hard and then slumped to the floor.

Akane stood there shocked for a few seconds and then almost ran across the room to him. She changed her mind and treated him like a real opponent. She stayed on guard ready for him to get back up. He slowly stood up and gave her a dazed look. "Give up Ranma?"

He sneered at her, "Never."

She sneered back and ran at him again. He blocked all of her attacks instead of dodging. He saw an opening and pushed at her stomach with an open palm forcing her to hop back away from him. She gasp slightly but attacked again. With his longer arms he reached out and got ahold of her arm using her momentum to pull her past him and brought his leg up against her side but didn't actually kick. "Duck out of that next time and use that attack against your opponent by pulling them over your head. Becomes almost like martial arts leap frog."

The timer rang but before Ranma could go shut it off Akane had leapt at him hitting him with enough force to knock him over onto his back. She landed on his chest and immediately attacked his mouth with hers. She released him and smiled down at him. "God Ranma that was amazing. Thank you. Did I hurt you when I hit you?"

"I will be fine."

She reached up and touch his face and noticed a lump forming above his nose. She gingerly kissed the spot and he winced a little. "I really am sorry I hurt you but I am not sorry I got you to actually fight me even if you were holding back."

"It is training Akane, I will definitely hold back but what you said about helping you find holes in your defenses made sense. I think can show you those holes without actually doing damage to you."

She stood up and pulled him up off the floor. She turned off the timer and he walked up behind her. Putting his arms around her, he heard a sharp intake of breath. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Don't you dare lie to me."

"I probably have a few bruises on my arms from when you blocked me and from the ribbon." Ranma's expression darkened and she quickly tried to reassure him. "I loved it. It was so wonderful to actually fight. I am fine. The bruises are because I attacked you so hard. Do your arms hurt?"

"Nope."

"That isn't fair."

Ranma laughed quietly. "Are you sure you want to be able to take a hit?"

"Absolutely. Let's finish up and head inside. I want a bath."

Soaking in the warm bath helped sooth some of the aches and bruises, after getting out she dressed quickly for dinner. Akane made sure her top covered any marks she might have so that her family and Ranma would not worry. After dinner she did her homework and collapsed into bed.

Ranma had nightmares most of the night. In them he was fighting Akane or throwing things at her and he would wake up panting with images of her broken and bleeding in his head.


	11. Chapter 11

**The usual disclaimer** - I don't own Ranma 1/2 and do not profit from this story.

**A/N:** I'm going to take a moment to monologue (Yes, I am an evil genius). While the characters are not mine, this story as well as the writing style is. My goal is write a story that resolves a few conflicts in the Rumiko's story for the enjoyment of myself a maybe a few others. I am not overly concerned with being perfect and avoiding all continuity errors. As for my writing style, it leans slightly formal; however, most grammar changes and tone changes are purposeful in order to alter emphasis on certain words in a sentence or give characters the feel of authority. I am now over half way through my story and am working on what will be either a lengthening of this story or a second story. I would like to eventually resolve all of Ranma's suitors, Shampoo of course will be the most challenging to resolve without killing her (believe me I am tempted) or making it seem to convenient. Thank you to all those who have read and continue to read this; I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am enjoying continuing to write it. Onward to the detrimental effects of those dreams Ranma had last night.

Chapter 11 – Skipping School

Ranma was already eating breakfast when Akane came downstairs. He look really tired, he often looked a little sleepy since he waited until the last minute to get up and get ready, but today he looked as if he hadn't slept at all. She sat down beside him and started to eat. "Good morning."

"Eh."

"What's wrong?'

"Nothin'."

"Don't you dare lie to me."

He didn't like having his words thrown back at him. So instead he just glared at her then returned to eating.

"Ranma, I know something is wrong."

"I'm fine, just tired."

"Idiot, fine be that way, don't talk to me. Like I care."

"Good."

Akane got up and went to retrieve her book bag. When they met at the door he still looked angry with her but she had no idea what he could possibly be mad about. She gave him a hard shove out the door. "Come on before we are late."

They ran toward the school and as soon as Ranma could jump up on the fence he did. He felt like picking a fight with her and wished he could get over it. He didn't know why he was so angry with her. She hadn't really done anything wrong. She wasn't even that hurt last night during training but he didn't think he could do it again. She had been so happy and excited with the sparring and she wasn't wrong, she needed that kind of training. Thinking about it was killing him. "I'm done training you."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me. It isn't helping."

"I dare you to get down here and say that to my face so I can pummel you into the ground. I'm doing great. You are just mad I have improved quickly and can make you worry about getting hit."

"It isn't helping me. Dr. Tofu said it would help me and it isn't. I can't do it anymore."

"Get down here or I will come up there."

Ranma jumped down but couldn't bring himself to look at Akane.

"What happened? You weren't like this last night." Ranma didn't answer her and she watched him walk ahead. She followed feeling angry and frustrated. They had been doing so well. _Why did it have to start going wrong now? _As they walked along in silence Ranma looked more and more miserable. When Akane pulled him towards Dr. Tofu's door he started to complain.

"We are going to be late for school."

"You don't care about that so shut up and come on."

"I'm fine."

"I told you not to lie to me. I didn't lie to you last night when you asked me not to so please don't lie to me today." She didn't relent and continued to mutter at him, idiot being the word he heard her say most frequently.

As soon as they were inside the clinic Dr. Tofu greeted them and knew immediately something was off. The couple seemed out of sync and was barely looking at each other.

"What has happened?"

"Nothin'."

"Ranma!" Facing the doctor she asked him to talk to Ranma.

Dr. Tofu took Ranma back into the patient area and left Akane in the waiting room. "Something is definitely bothering you. Can you tell me what you think it is?"

"I hurt her last night."

"She looks fine, how did you hurt her?"

Ranma explained about the training they had done last night. The doctor was very impressed with how Akane had tried to convince Ranma to let her risk injury during sparring. However Ranma was certainly facing repercussions that Akane failed to consider.

"Did you dream last night?"

"Yeah."

"What were the dreams like?"

"They were all me fighting against her like a real opponent and she always ended up really hurt… or worse."

"Ranma!" Dr. Tofu actually was worried about his patient, "Do you think you could ever actually harm her?"

"Not really, I mean I think I would always stop or hold back and when we were fighting in the dojo it felt good to fight against her. I liked finding ways to show her how to improve. She was amazing to watch doctor, I don't understand why it is bothering me so much. I keep trying to remind myself that she is fine and happy. I felt okay after we were done, I mean I felt a little guilty but she was so excited that it was easy to ignore. When I woke up today I could hardly look at her and now I don't want to train her anymore but she would hate me if I stopped and she has the damn duel against Kodachi tomorrow."

"Why weren't you honest with Akane about the dreams?"

"She would look at me with pity, I feel helpless and weak in those dreams. I hate them."

"She just wants to be able to help you Ranma."

"I know."

"I would like to try something that might help you both." He stood up and called Akane back to the room. She looked worriedly at Ranma who averted his gaze.

"Akane I would like to teach you how to do something to help Ranma but it won't work unless he talks to you first." He left the room leaving the teens to hopefully talk.

"Ranma?"

Ranma took a deep breath and told Akane about the dreams he had last night. When she looked at him with those sad eyes he felt himself getting angry again. "Stop looking at me like that. I hate that."

"Fine, maybe I shouldn't want to help you. I guess I shouldn't care huh?"

"I don't want pity. I don't want to feel like I am weak and can't handle something. I was better last night when you sat on me and yelled at me."

"Well I don't feel like yelling at you right now. IDIOT." She glared at him for good measure and he smiled back a small smile.

"I don't know, I just didn't want you to think it was your fault or something stupid like that."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"Anything Goes School of Marital Arts Ultimate Technique?"

"We are not going to run away."

"We could run together, get away from all the craziness."

Akane laughed, "Tempting but no."

"Sorry about this morning. I just couldn't talk about it there, someone would overhear." He looked around the room not wanting to look directly at Akane yet, "Um we are really late for school."

"How about instead of being mean to me you just say that you will talk to me later or something?"

"Yeah I guess. I wonder what Dr. Tofu wants to do to me this time."

Akane sat on Ranma's lap and put her arms around him. "You are not weak. Even when Happosai took your strength I never thought you were weak."

"Thanks."

Dr. Tofu walked back into the room and Akane quickly jumped off Ranma's lap. "Thank you Akane, I will need Ranma to lay on his stomach."

Ranma moved to lie down but the doctor stopped him and told him to remove his shirt. Akane took a few seconds to appreciate Ranma's chest before he stretched out on the examination bed. Akane saw him take out a box of thin needles. "Oh you are going to do acupuncture again?"

"Yes I am only going to do the same thing as last time though. You are going to help with the rest."

"I can't do acupuncture!"

He couldn't help but smile at the incredulous look on her face. "No, what you will be doing will not use needles."

Akane was relieved; watching the doctor stick the tiny needles into Ranma was bad enough. She was glad she wasn't watching the first time.

Ranma could see her face and smiled. "It doesn't hurt at all. Come here."

She walked over and sat down in front of his head. He had his hands folded under his chin but shifted slightly to bring one hand out and held it out to Akane. She smiled and took his hand, holding it throughout the entire procedure.

After the doctor was done placing the needles he left the room, he wanted the needles to stay in for a little longer this time but also he had a feeling they would work better this time. If the couple were as warm together as he had so often seen them lately then it would create a much more positive flow of energy through Ranma's body. If not it would still help just not as much, he had no doubt the pair would overcome this latest setback.

In the exam room Ranma and Akane were still holding hands. Akane reached over and brushed some hair from in front of Ranma's face. Her fingertips tingled a little at the touch and it almost felt like the hand he was holding was very slightly vibrating.

Ranma could feel it too. Where she had touched his face felt warm, not hot but rather a pleasant sensation. Curious he rubbed her hand with his thumb and felt it again.

Akane actually moaned a little and let go of his hand to trace a trail along his arm. She heard Ranma moan as well.

"Why does that feel so good today?"

"Do you think it has something to do with the acupuncture?"

"Maybe."

Neither had heard the doctor return so when he spoke they both tensed and pulled apart. "It does have to do with the acupuncture but it only works when both people care a great deal about each other." He watched both of them blush but neither denied it. "Akane I am going to direct you where to touch Ranma. Don't worry even if you bump the needles it will not do damage to him but not touching them is better."

The doctor had her move her fingertips and sometimes her hands in circular motions moving around his face, down his neck, and along his spine. Then he moved her to Ranma's shoulders and down his arms extending off his fingertips.

"Doc I have never felt so relaxed. Please tell me Akane has to do this to me every night."

"Every night?"

"Oh this should be payment for training you."

"I'm your fiancé, why should I have to pay?" Akane looked down and saw Ranma smiling. He was teasing her again. He really did feel better and he was mentioning training without looking sick. "Maybe I will do it at home but only after you do your homework."

"Ahhh … that's not fair."

Akane raised an eyebrow at her pouting fiancé and repeated the pattern over Ranma's skin. He agreed to the homework provision.

"Now I don't want to embarrass you both but the same pattern can be done while Ranma lies on his back." He watched both teens blush again. "But even if you don't do that, doing something nice together after training but before bedtime will help with the dreams."

"Ranma why were these dreams bothering you so much more than the ones before?"

"Because I wasn't the one hurting you in the dreams before."

"Oh."

Dr. Tofu took out the needles carefully and Ranma put his undershirt and red silk shirt back on. After leaving the clinic they both just stood on the street, neither moving towards school.

"It is going to be hard to explain why we are late."

"Yeah."

"Wait, I know." Akane ran back into the clinic with Ranma following her. "Dr. Tofu can I borrow your phone?"

"Sure."

"I just hope it is Kasumi who answers."

She heard Kasumi pick up on the other end and breathed a sigh of relief. "Kasumi, um, I have a favor to ask you. Can you call the school and tell them Ranma and I will be absent today?" Ranma and the doctor couldn't hear Kasumi on the other end but Akane looked guilty before explaining, "Well you see, we had to stop by Dr. Tofu's clinic on the way to school and it took so long that we think it will be better if we just don't go." Akane listened again, "No neither of us were hurt, yes it was important." Kasumi must have finally agreed because Akane eventually thanked her sister and hung up.

"Well that is taken care of, what do you want to do today Ranma? We get to skip today."

Ranma grinned, "Follow me."

Dr. Tofu watched the couple run off and hoped they had a really great day.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer - **I don't own Ranma 1/2

Chapter 12 – A frog and a pig

They ran to the edge of town and started following the river up to the mountain. "Ranma, where are we going?"

"There's a nice spot I know. I like to go there when Dad drags me to the mountains to train. We can eat lunch there and then maybe do a little balance training or something."

"Sounds great."

Almost an hour later they arrived at the spot. Akane remembered the area from when she came up here with Ranma and his father to train for his fight against Ryoga. Ranma found a comfortable place to sit down and reached out for her. Pulling her down she landed on his lap rather unceremoniously. She felt his breath on her neck and then he was kissing along her neck and jaw.

"Akane?"

"Hmmm…?"

"Thanks for ya know…. "

"Thanks for what?"

"Dragging me to see Dr. Tofu."

"I almost didn't. I wanted to get mad at you and storm out the door, but well, I don't know it just seems easier to tell when you need me to control myself."

"Today would have been really bad at school."

"Ranma I wish I could do more."

"Thanks"

"Will you tell me again?"

"Tell you what again?"

"How you feel."

A small smile appeared on his face and he blushed, "I love you."

Akane smiled back broadly, "I love you too."

"Even when I am an idiot?"

"You're my idiot."

"And you're my tomboy."

"No more lying to me, about anything. Okay?"

Ranma wanted to immediately agree but then he thought of Ryoga. That damn bastard refused to tell Akane he was really her P-chan and he had promised to keep the secret. Since he made that promise Ryoga had behaved so dishonorably in Ranma's opinion. He nuzzled her chest, was in her room while she changed, and slept in her bed. He felt bad that it was his fault in a twisted round-a-bout way that Ryoga was cursed but if he saw Ryoga again he was going to make him tell her somehow. She deserved to know.

"Ranma?"

"Ummm…. I can't really make that promise."

"Why not?" Akane could feel herself getting angry. It was a simple promise to make.

"Well, um, I can promise to tell you anything about myself. Does that help?"

"I don't understand."

"Well I sorta made a promise to keep a secret for someone and even though I don't want to keep it anymore I feel like I have to."

"Does this secret involve you?"

"Kinda"

"Does it involve me?"

"Yes"

"Then I really want to know."

"I made a warrior's promise and it feels dishonorable to break it. The person I am keeping the secret for hasn't behaved honorably and I don't like it but if I break my word then I am being dishonorable too."

"If I figure it out then you won't have broken your word."

"I gave up on you figuring it out a long time ago. Besides it won't stop you from being mad at me."

"Can you give me a clue that won't mean you have broken your promise?"

Ranma thought carefully for a few minutes before finally talking, "Ummm… well you know everyone who ended up going to China with the guide's daughter, Plum, right?"

"Yeah. Shampoo was taken there by the birdmen, Mousse insisted on going to rescue Shampoo, your dad and you went to save Jusenkyo and help the guide." Akane thought for a while, "Oh yeah and Ryoga went to help too."

"Everyone who went with Plum had something in common. Even saying that feels like a betrayal. I need to stop."

Akane frowned and thought for a while. "Okay, I won't bother you about it."

"Please when you do find out, remember this conversation."

"Okay, I promise." Akane smiled at Ranma, "A warrior's promise, I will remember this conversation."

He laughed and hoped it helped because the next time he saw bandana boy he was making him reveal P-chan.

Akane got their lunches out of her bag and sat down beside Ranma. They relaxed and ate while talking about her training that was needed. He was trying to figure out how to train her for Kodachi's spiked clubs and razor hoop. He wasn't as worried about the ball as that mostly just had to be dodged. The stupid thing exploded so dodging was harder than a normal ball.

"We need to figure out a way for you to get close to her. If you can get within striking distance of her then she will be toast. She is good at getting out of range though."

"What about tying myself to her if I can? Like Ryoga did to you the first time you fought."

"It is really risky but it would make it hard for her to get away from your strength, which is why Ryoga did that. Remember though, it didn't work for Ryoga in our fight."

"That is because you are a more creative fighter than Ryoga."

"Of course I am."

"Nice to see your ego back again." Akane stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now you are just trying to distract me." Ranma grinned evilly as he pulled Akane back onto his lap and showed her exactly what he thought of her tongue.

They broke apart with a gasp, desperate for air. "I thought we were here to train, not make out."

"Hmmm… I think you are changing my mind."

She arched her eyebrows at him, "I am changing your mind?"

"Maybe, stick your tongue out at me again."

She scoffed and pushed away from him. She stood over him with her hands on her hips, while he rolled with laughter on the ground. "Idiot."

Ranma finally got himself under control and went to find some training tools. He brought back sticks and he broke a couple of limbs to acts as clubs. Then he walked over to a boulder and broke it with his fist, then gathered the smaller pieces.

Nearby Ryoga was walking through the forest with no idea if he was going in the right direction. _Akari's farm should be around here somewhere. I should visit with her for a long time and then I will be able to finally give up on Akane._ He heard the distinct sound of a boulder exploding and decided to investigate. _My dear Akane, Ranma will never be good enough for you but I want you to be happy and if he is the man to make you happy then I shall not stand in the way. _As he got closer to where he thought the sound had come from, he could hear voices. The voices sounded a lot like Ranma and Akane but they should be in school and all the way back in Nerima. Besides, why would they be out here in the woods? Ranma wouldn't be stupid enough to take her on an extreme mountain training trip.

What he saw when he found a clearing near the river left him standing in shock staring at the pair. Ranma was throwing rocks from a broken boulder at Akane and she was deflecting them with a couple of pieces of wood. She was steadily retreating as Ranma threw more and more rocks. She was successfully dodging or blocking most of the rocks and none were hitting her with enough force to hurt her very bad. He watched Ranma use up the rocks and still grabbed something on the ground. Ryoga didn't know what it was but it didn't fly like a rock. Akane missed it and it smacked her directly in the face. He started to run towards her to see if she was okay when he heard Akane yell.

"YUCK, WHAT WAS THAT?" She looked at the ground where the item had fallen and only saw a small frog. "DID YOU JUST THROW A FROG AT ME?"

"Um… I think so, I ran out of rocks and saw it sitting there."

"GROSS!" She tried to wipe her face off but could feel dirt on her hands from the makeshift clubs. "Ugg I am going to wash my face in the river."

Ranma glanced around and saw Ryoga standing there as if he had no idea what to do. "Hey Ryoga, what are you doing here?"

"Ryoga?" Akane looked back from the river, "Hi Ryoga, are you already back?"

"Uh yeah, I guess I made it back. Are you guys training out here?"

Akane smiled, "Yeah, we skipped school and came up here to train away from everyone. I have to duel Kodachi tomorrow."

Ryoga dropped his pack and stormed over to Ranma, grabbing his shirt. "Why is she dueling Kodachi? She is going to get hurt. She has no business dueling anyone."

Ranma was about to pummel Ryoga when a rock hit him in the head. Both guys looked over at Akane, who was marching over to where they stood. She took hold of the back of Ryoga's shirt and pulled him to the ground, which pulled Ranma down too since he hadn't let go of him.

"I accepted the challenge and I am sick and tired of hearing how I shouldn't fight, shouldn't defend myself, or duel anyone. Ranma thinks I can beat her and that is all that matters. I can fight and I will fight because I am a martial artist. I am done listening to people who think I am too weak to defend myself. So shut up Ryoga and either help me train or leave."

Both Ranma and Ryoga just stared at her dumbfounded. Ranma didn't think she would ever talked to Ryoga that way, she was usually irritatingly sweet to him. Meanwhile, Ryoga couldn't believe such a sweet girl was being so stubborn.

"Uh… uh… How can I help?"

"You can stand behind her and keep her from backing up. She is considerably stronger than Kodachi so she is supposed to be working on getting in closer."

"No more frogs! That wasn't nice to the frog."

Both of them laughed at her. "Ok I won't throw another frog but I can't promise no spiders or …"

Her club knocked him back into a tree.

"I can break a rock into more pieces." Ryoga used his break point attack to shatter the boulder so that Ranma had plenty of small rocks to use.

"Here they come Akane."

They started again but each time she tried to back up Ryoga put his hands out and stopped her. He saw her starting to back up again and put his hands out but also said, "Akane, get mad and hit them back, don't just deflect them."

She narrowed her eyes and focused on them like they were baseballs or volleyballs and tried to direct them back at Ranma. Each time she got a solid hit on one she took a step forward until she was forcing Ranma to back up. Ranma ran out of rocks and was forced to advance on her. He tried kicking the clubs out of hands but she pull one out of the way and hit him on the shin hard with the other one. He flipped back away from her again and she threw a club at his head. He saw it coming and picked it out of the air and advanced again using the club.

She was forced to parry his attacks with the club. He combined his fastest attack with the club to give her more attacks to dodge and parry. She backed up and tried to remember how Ranma had dealt with the 1000 clubs attack from Kodachi in the gymnastics competition. _He hit her hands with something and forced her to drop them._ She leapt back and grabbed one of the larger rocks from before and aimed at his arms. He deflected the first one but didn't see the second one coming and she was able to disrupt his attack.

He stopped and just grinned at her. "Excellent!"

"Yeah Akane that was really good."

"Thanks Ryoga. You really surprised me with the chestnuts attack Ranma. I never thought you would use that one."

"I didn't extend it far enough to hit you. I just wanted to worry you a little."

Ryoga frowned, "That was a really risky move."

"Not really, I watched her movements really closely."

Ryoga stood face to face with Ranma, "If she get hurts I will kill you."

"I won't let her get hurt."

Akane was ready to throw rocks at them again when it started raining. She was considering if she should still the throw the rocks when instead of guys fighting she heard girl Ranma's voice and a squeal.

"Now where are you trying to go?"

Akane looked closely at the scene, Ranma had his foot on P-chan's tail and Ryoga's clothes were in a pile on the ground. _Everyone who went to Jusenkyo had someone thing in common. _Shampoo is cursed to turn into a cat, Mousse turns into a duck, Genma a panda and Ranma a girl and now she was staring at what used to be Ryoga. "Ryoga? P-chan?"

Ranma was worried about the look in Akane's eyes. He couldn't read it, he couldn't tell if she was going to break down or explode. He approached her cautiously after he tied P-chan to a tree. "Akane?"

"I … I … why didn't he tell me? YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME."

"I wanted to, every time you hugged him I wanted to kill him. When you took him to your room it drove me insane."

"I took him to bed with me! How could you let me?"

"I snuck in several times trying to get to him. Instead I got called a pervert."

"YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME."

"WOULD YOU HAVE BELIEVED ME?"

"Yes… no… I don't know."

"Akane, please remember the warrior's promise you made to me."

Akane paused and forced herself to stop and think. _What all had Ranma said?_ She replayed the conversation in her mind and finally one thought stuck out from all the others. _If I break my word I am being dishonorable too._

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kill him?"

"You should probably hear the whole story first but Ryoga probably deserves to be human for the story."

"Make him human."

"Um… Akane, it's still raining and we have no hot water."

"Fine. Let's go home and I will put on a POT of hot water and we can have pork tonight."

"Um… Akane, you're scaring him."

She glared at the shaking little black pig, "Good."

The little black pig passed out. Ranma looked down at him and decided that was probably for the best and stuffed him in her backpack along with the stupid pig's clothes. They cleaned up the site and walked home.

"Akane?"

"What?"

"How mad are you at me?"

"I am angrier with him."

"Okay." She didn't dare ask anything else and being a girl meant that holding hands was definitely out of the question.

Akane spent the walk home going over everything Ranma had told her about how he didn't really want to keep the warrior's promise but she knew his honor meant a great deal to him. She had promised to remember the conversation so she replayed it over and over again in her head. He had looked so frustrated with keeping it. As she thought more and more about it she also remembered every time he had chased the pig around her room or told it to behave. He often called the pig Ryoga and had even called Ryoga P-chan. He had helped her rescue the pig even when he didn't want to. She really wasn't going to be able to stay mad at Ranma. She was also worried that if they went to bed mad he might have another bad night. Dr. Tofu had told them it would be good to spend time doing something nice together before bed.

She felt really stupid for not figuring it out sooner. P-chan never let her give him a bath and she would often see Ryoga and P-chan in the same week but never at the same time. Ranma even had pointed out that they both got lost easily. He must have been so tempted over and over again to break that promise. Ranma always blushed and turn away when she wasn't decent and often had given her his shirt. Ryoga in pig form had often been in her room when she changed and she never paid attention to whether or not he watched. He really did behave dishonorably. Why had he started doing that? She could understand that sometimes she just found him and picked him up but so many others he would jump into her arms and snuggled into her… _oh my god_.

"Where is the pig?"

Ranma took several steps backward and threw her hands up, "What's wrong?"

"He purposely snuggles into my chest! Just like Happosai does."

"Why do you think I hit him so many times?"

"But I always hit you after you did that."

"It was worth it."

"I never knew you were protecting me."

Ranma nonchalantly shrugged and kept walking.

Akane reached out and stopped her and pulled her closer. "I forgive you. I wish you had told me but I understand that your honor is important to you. Can I hug you and give you a kiss before we get back to town?"

"You don't have to ask. I'm okay with it and thanks for not staying mad at me very long."

Akane pulled Ranma to a tree and smiled evilly, she liked watching Ranma's eyes go wide. She pushed her up against a tree and tilted her mouth against her fiancé's. She felt Ranma's arms go around her neck and play with her hair much like she often did to male Ranma.

Their embrace was interrupted by a shrill squeal from inside Ranma's backpack. "Hmm…. Guess you were too rough for Ryoga." Ranma took Akane's hand and both of them had trouble not giggling until they got to the edge of town.

When they arrived home Akane immediately put on some hot water.

"Akane! You are home sooner than I thought you would be. You look really angry is everything okay?"

Akane turned to Kasumi, "Did you know Ryoga and P-chan were the same? That Ryoga is cursed like Ranma?"

"Oh my, I guess that makes sense but Akane he sleeps in your room."

"I am going to kill him."

"Oh my."

"This deserves something stronger than 'oh my' sister dear."

Kasumi giggled. "How about if I say that I don't feel sorry for what is about to happen to Ryoga. Any man who tricks my sister like that deserves whatever happens to him. Akane, did you know Ryoga has a crush on you?"

"No, Ranma didn't tell me that either."

"Don't be too mad at Ranma."

"I've already forgiven him. When I thought about it, he always tried to keep Ryoga from doing the perverted things that he did."

"I really like this change in you little sister. You have matured a great deal since you returned from China. I only wish that it hadn't taken something as awful as what happened there."

"Thank you. He loves me you know."

"I think he always has, ever since you asked him to be your friend."

Akane looked surprised. "But that was the first day we met and I thought he was a girl."

"How many friends has he had over the years? You freely offered to be his."

"Why do you think he chose me? I am not as good at martial arts as the other girls or as pretty."

"Don't sell yourself short but I think it was really because you were honest with him. Oh maybe not about your feelings and your wishes but you never tried to trick him into marriage or dates. You just aren't a fake person Akane and that is more attractive than any pretty figure."

Akane beamed at her sister. "Thank you, I needed that."

Upstairs Ranma was holding down P-chan so that he couldn't run away. "Stay still and face the consequences of your actions like a man."

Akane came in with the kettle and started to pour it on P-chan. "WAIT!"

"What's wrong?"

"Give me the kettle and turn around."

"Wha… why? OHHHH," She blushed and quickly turned around.

Ranma pour hot water on himself and then Ryodga and finally handed Ryoga his clothes. "Akane you can turn around now."

While Ryoga was dressing she had been getting mad again thinking of the times he saw her naked or nearly naked. "How could you do that to me? I thought you were my friend."

"I… I… I'm… really…really sorry. I'll do anything for you to forgive me."

"I don't know if there is anything you can do. You let me think P-chan was a pet. You had chances to tell me but you never did. You made Ranma keep his promise not to tell."

"I'm sorry. I usually looked away when you were dressing. I liked being near you because you were so nice to me."

"You did it because you have a crush on me," both Ranma and Ryoga gaped at her, "Kasumi pointed it out today."

Ryoga turned very red and slowly nodded.

"So that means you were happy to be cuddling my chest and sleeping in my bed."

"Actually," Ranma interrupted, "I can't believe I might stick up for Ryoga here, but apparently sleeping with you is dangerous."

"What?"

"Uh yeah, Happposai used a sleeping incense on you and tried to sneak and sleep with you. Ryoga and I worked together to get you away from him but he managed to get the best of us. When he tried to cuddle with you, you rolled over on him, kicked him and punched him."

Ryoga dared to look up at Akane, "Yeah, I got beat up several times at night."

"You deserved every lump."

He returned to looking down at his lap, "Yes"

"You never told me about Happosai doing that."

"Well since he didn't enjoy it very much and had so many bruises we figured the old pervert got exactly what he deserved. You were fine."

"Ranma you should have told me."

"Okay, I won't keep something like that from you anymore. Although if the creep does anything like that again then I will simply kill him."

Akane nodded curtly and returned to facing Ryoga. "I may forgive you Ryoga… eventually, but not today or anytime soon." Again both guys were shocked at her words, "I don't like what you did and I don't know if I will ever feel like being close friends with you again but it isn't worth staying mad about it, especially since the man who tried to stop you from doing it is the man I fell in love with, not the man who snuck into my bed. Tricks do not work to win someone's love. Being honest is best."

Ranma smiled at Akane. _She understands why I love her over all the others._ He wasn't sure how she figured that out but he didn't care. "Ryoga, time for you to leave. I want my fiancé all to myself."

Ryoga slowly stood up and with his head down walked to the door. "Thank you for keeping your promise Ranma. Akane, I really am sorry."


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer - **I do not own Ranma 1/2 nor do I profit from this story.

**AN:** This chapter does not contain Ranma and Akane, these events are taking place while our couple skips school. A little filler because I have a soft spot for the calculating Nabiki :)

Chapter 13 – Meanwhile back at Furinkan High

Nabiki arrived at school earlier than usual. She was never late to school, preferring to conduct any business she could right away. She found her friends and sat down to instruct them on what help she would need today. In her backpack was a small padded envelope of photos that she was sure would bring in a little extra cash. Frankly, the more Ranma and Akane forgot themselves and acted like a couple, the more likely it was that other suitors would once again start showing up uninvited to their home, doing the usual damage. This way her sister and Ranma would be a part of helping to pay for repairs, albeit indirectly and unknowingly.

She had created stills from the videos she had captured of the pair as well as the photos from a couple of days ago. All in all she had selected 5 shots and printed multiple copies. There was one of them kissing while Ranma was hanging upside down, another of them in the dojo and three taken by the gate that included one of Ranma kissing the tears off Akane's cheek. She was counting on the last one being popular with the girls. Her team would start with the usual clients but she would handle Kuno and Ukyo directly.

It was simple to spread the word that she had new pictures. Gossip about Ranma and Akane's change in attitude towards each other was still going strong, so it didn't surprise her when Kuno appeared over her shoulder demanding to see the photos.

"Nabiki Tendo, what are these photos you possess?"

"Hello Kuno Baby, I might have a few new pictures of Akane. 5000 yen for the set." No way was she going to let him know more about the pictures before she had the money in her hand. "Technically the pig-tailed girl is in them too, she is just a little hard to see." _Oh Kuno is fun to mess with._

He quickly dug out 5000 yen and handed it over. "Now hand me the glorious images of the radiant Akane Tendo."

"Love has made her particularly radiant." Nice doing business with you. She quickly slipped out of the classroom and waited for Kuno to do some free advertising for her.

Her friends had followed her out of the classroom, she winked at them and counted, "3… 2… 1…"

"WHAT ARE THESE FOUL IMAGES? ONE AS PURE AS AKANE TENDO WOULD NEVER KISS THE FETID LIKES OF RANMA SAOTOME. NABIKI TENDO WHY WOULD YOU SELL THESE DOCTORED IMAGES TO ME? OF THOSE TWO KISSING NO LESS. I DEMAND MY MONEY BACK."

"Thank you Kuno-baby." She said to no one in particular. Nabiki smiled and turned to a nearby group of students that looked obviously interested. "1000 yen per picture, they are guaranteed to not be doctored."

During the fifteen minutes she had remaining before class started she made a tidy profit. She sat back in her seat moments before class began, slipping the envelope back into her school bag that hung on her desk.

"You lied to me Nabiki Tendo."

"I most certainly did not."

"The pig-tailed girl is not in these photos."

The rest of the class rolled their eyes and waited for the teacher to deal with Kuno.

"Kuno class has started. Sit down in your seat."

"Nabiki Tendo has cheated me and I demand her to be held accountable for her actions."

"Sit down or I will send you to stand in the hall. You should be thinking about entrance exams for college and not about photographs of other students."

Kuno begrudgingly sat down at his desk and took his textbook out.

Between morning classes she was rapidly selling photos. It shouldn't have surprised her that there were almost as many guys buying photos as girls. Ranma and Akane's friends found her at the beginning of lunch and didn't hesitate to buy a set each. She noticed that the featured couple was not anywhere to be seen today and wondered what might have kept them from school.

"Oh look how sweet they are, Yuka."

"No wonder Akane has looked so happy lately, we just knew something had to be going on between the two of them… finally."

Even the guys were fussing over the photos. "Alright Ranma! So many guys are going to be upset now."

"We knew they were going to get together. I think my bet on their marriage is still good. Right Nabiki?" Daisuke couldn't remember exactly what date he picked but knew it was sometime next year. He thought his friend would continue to deny liking Akane longer than this.

She pulled out a small notebook and checked. "You have them getting married right after they graduate. So you are still in the running. However, you originally bet that he would go out with Shampoo first. You have lost your money on that one."

"How could you bet against Akane?" Yuka scolded him.

"Akane was always so mean to him, I figured he would end up choosing one of the girls that was nicer to him."

"Ranma was mean to Akane too, he always…"

"All that bickering is why I never bet against them. They argued like an old married couple from nearly the first day." Hiroshi interrupted.

Nabiki found this debate among their friends entertaining but there was someone she really wanted to accidentally run into before she left for the day. "Well bye, bye now. If you need to adjust your various bets we can talk cost for that tomorrow." She slipped away from the group and scanned the yard for a certain chef.

She finally spotted her walking out of the front entrance of the school, altering her course she moved to intercept her.

Ukyo had heard the rumors the same as everyone else and was furious that Nabiki was circulating pictures of Ranma and Akane supposedly kissing. No one had dared approach her all morning, probably because of how angry she looked.

Nabiki stepped in front of Ukyo and smiled slyly. "So Ukyo, interested in some fascinating pictures."

"I am sure you have doctored them. Ranma would never kiss your sister, all she ever does is hit him and is never nice to him."

"What I see these days is her being very…" Nabiki wiggled her eyebrows at the girl, "nice to him. Seems to me he has chosen which fiancé he wants to someday marry."

"I'll believe it when Ranma tells me directly. Even then, minds can be changed."

"You and the Amazon are delusional." She threw a photo at the chef, "Here take a look yourself. It isn't doctored at all. Looks like a whole lot of passion to me."

Ukyo looked down at the photo in her hand. In it Ranma had his hands around Akane and was kissing her deeply, the camera had captured a hint of sparkle from the tears on Akane's cheek. "Ha… why is Akane crying? She probably used tears to get Ranma to kiss her. Just like she used a fake illness to get him to stay at your house and take care of her. She is using guilt against him."

Nabiki raised her eyebrows at the girl, "My sister is more likely to act fine when she is really sick then to ever act sick for attention. You sound like Shampoo." Nabiki watched Ukyo crush the photo in her hand and could tell the girl was starting to shake. "Oh my look at the time. I better get back to class and you have a little shop to open."

Ukyo stormed off dropping the crumpled photo on the ground. Dark eyes watched her leave the school yard and sneaked over to retrieve the picture and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

As she walked to her shop she couldn't stop thinking about Ranma and Akane. She always thought that Akane's violent streak towards Ranma would mean he would never consider her as a fiancé. What was it about her that he liked? Could it be that he just wanted her dojo? _Nah, if that was the case he would have been nicer to her all along._ Part of her still wanted to believe the photos were doctored and that she would talk to Ranma and he would deny liking Akane. Maybe that is what she should do, invite him to the shop and just ask him or ask him at school tomorrow. She needed to know, she wanted to know why he didn't like her that way.

According to Cologne the mushrooms probably didn't work because they were not under a spell. But why had he attacked Shampoo? That was definitely not like Ranma at all; he always held back when he fought girls if he fought them at all. Cologne was still trying to keep Shampoo away from him. She had not been happy when Ukyo stopped by the Cat Café after giving Ranma the mushrooms. She had even overheard Cologne threaten to send the girl back to China if she tried to find Ranma again. The old woman was clearly worried that Shampoo would anger Ranma again and get herself hurt worse than before. She had managed to pick up something about bruises finally being gone before they noticed she was in the Café.

She found out that the two Amazon's were still working on a way to determine if Ranma and Akane were under the effect of something. From the story Mousse had told it sounded like the trip to China had been hardest on those two, she had a great deal of thinking to do before she decided to continued helping those two.

Arriving at her business, she warmed up her grill and prepped her ingredients before putting her sign out for the day. Maybe she would get lucky and Ranma would stop in today. He wasn't at school and she, along with everyone else, was very curious why.

**AN - **I have 4 more chapter written for this story and a sequel started. I keep changing my mind on how to handle Ukyo, as she can't seem to decide exactly how to react.


	14. Chapter 14

**The usual disclaimer - ** I don't own Ranma 1/2.

**AN: **Love the latest reviews :) gort420: I am saving batshit crazy for Shampoo :) and you should probably stay away from rented mules, they really are mostly nice creatures. chia-chan: Here's your downtime sorry to make you wait... or maybe I am not... muhahahaha. Richard Ryley: I agree, I view Ryoga as weak willed and I think the trip to China demonstrates that when he takes a picture of both girls with him. I also tend to view Ryoga as mostly wanting Akane to be happy but all the while being convince that Ranma isn't good enough for her.

Chapter 14 – Nabiki's Confession

Ryoga walked out of the house and saw Nabiki entering the gate. "Well, well, Ryoga, what are you doing here?"

"Um just visiting Ranma and Akane."

"Oh, so I assume we will be seeing P-chan this evening. Should be interesting."

Ryoga growled at her. "Ranma told YOU?"

"No, I am just not as dense as Akane. Hmmm… what would you give to keep it quiet?"

"You are too late, she knows." He continued to walk away.

"Damn, missed another chance." Nabiki frowned and turned around yelling out to Ryoga, "If she knows they why aren't you bloody and broken."

"Just lucky I guess."

The skies opened up and Nabiki pulled out an umbrella she kept in her bag at all times. _Their curse almost seems to attract rain._

"Or not pig boy." She pulled the gate closed shutting him out. Like everyone else, Nabiki had been unable to bring herself to tell Akane about Ryoga and besides it was fun watching Ranma get jealous of a pig. She went into the house smiling to herself. She wondered where Ranma and Akane were and if there might be some good pictures to get. She had sold all the pictures that she took to school today and made a handsome profit. She was pretty sure Kuno would attack Ranma again but nothing new there; all of their friends bought pictures and were really excited about them, even the guys. They had some strange friends but it was nice to know they had real friends and not just ones out to break them up like the amazon, the chef and the pig.

Kasumi stopped Nabiki in the hall. "Akane is hurting."

"I saw Ryoga, she found out about pig-boy."

"Ranma and she are up in her room right now, I hope you will leave them alone. Ranma was in pretty bad shape this morning."

"What do you mean bad shape? Does this have something to do with why they didn't come to school?"

"Yes, I don't know exactly what is going on but they went to Dr. Tofu's this morning on their way to school and Akane called home asking for me to get them the day off school. She has never asked to stay home without a good reason."

"But they didn't say why? Or where they went?"

"No, I trust them."

"Akane has a duel tomorrow."

"What? Oh my."

"The entire school is going to be there, she is fighting Kodachi."

"Oh dear, I hope she's ready." When Nabiki gave her an incredulous look Kasumi explained, "She may not be as strong as she was before being taken to China. We still know don't fully understand everything that happened there but Ranma hasn't said she is back to her full strength. She has always been tough and resourceful so I am sure she will find a way to win tomorrow."

"You and most everyone else, I had to take bets on how quickly she would beat her instead of who would win."

Back upstairs in Akane's room Ranma closed the curtains and made sure the door was shut.

"Are you ok Akane?"

"I am still hurt and mad at Ryoga but I will be fine."

Ranma felt helpless, one of these days he was going to pound Ryoga into the ground for being so selfish. There were times when he really liked the guy, he was a good challenge in a fight and often had forced Ranma to master new techniques to defeat him. But looking at Akane now, he hated him. Maybe Akane would someday forgive him but he couldn't. When he looked over at Akane again he saw tears forming. _Oh damn, what do I do?_

"Akane?"

"I'm fine."

"Just tell me what to do. You know I am clueless."

"Hold me."

"And…"

"That's it."

"Really? Sure no problem." He pulled her against his chest and just held on while she cried into his shirt. He started rubbing small circles along her back with one hand and cradled her head with the other.

The door open and Nabiki stepped into the room. Akane tried to pull away but Ranma held her firm against him. "She already knows anyway."

"Are you okay Akane?"

"Yeah, I just hate that I didn't figure it out myself. Why are you in here?"

"I saw pig-boy leave and found out what happened. Also I need to tell you two something."

"What?" Ranma was always suspicious of Nabiki, especially when she was being nice.

"I thought Ranma was mostly, you know, okay and not going to hurt anyone, but I found out from Kasumi that you two missed school in order to see Dr. Tofu."

Ranma looked away embarrassed, while Akane glared at her sister. "Nabiki? What are you getting at?"

Nabiki swallowed hard. "I might have sold a few pictures."

"WHAT?"

"It seems most everyone already decided you guys were officially an item and the pictures sold like celebrity photos. Everyone is crazy about you two and there have been multiple betting pools about when you would finally stop fighting and start… well you know."

Akane pulled away again and this time he let her. He was stunned and frustrated. Their weeks of relative peace and quiet were over, he knew they had been careless but he didn't think everyone else knew what he and Akane had only recently admitted to themselves and finally each other.

"Ranma we need a plan for when our father's find out."

"I'll think of something, even if it involves taking on both of them."

Kasumi announced that dinner was ready from the stairwell but before they went downstairs Nabiki stopped both of them. "Kasumi and I can handle making sure any wedding plans get delayed as long as you want." She watched them blush and had to laugh. "If you still blush over that then you are definitely not ready for the wedding night." She continued to laugh as their faces became even redder.

They were quiet at the dinner table both trying not to look at each other.

Kasumi spoke up first, "So Akane are you ready for your duel tomorrow? You and Ranma have spent so much time training."

"Um yeah I think I am."

"Kodachi isn't going to know what hit her. Akane is going to be a lot faster than that crazy chic is prepared for and Akane has always been stronger than her." Akane beamed at Ranma's assessment.

"That's right, she picked the wrong girl to pick a fight with."

Soun looked surprised, "You accepted a challenge with this Kodachi girl? When were you going to tell me? And why are you fighting her."

"Oh I can answer those daddy," Nabiki smiled, "Akane accepted the challenge two days ago, she is telling you now and finally she is fighting her to win Ranma."

"NABIKI!"

"What? That is what I heard."

Soun and Genma were already crowding the pair offering the usual words of encouragement that were more embarrassing that encouraging.

"Finally you have realized that you should be with Ranma and carry on the dojo together."

"Ranma my boy, she is fighting for you, it obviously means she loves you."

"We should start planning the wedding."

"I already have a marriage certificate ready."

"WHAT?" No one was sure who yelled that louder, Ranma or Akane. Nabiki was shocked that she didn't already know about this and Kasumi just smiled sweetly and somewhat vacantly.

"Oh my, a marriage certificate, was that in your room Father?"

"Why yes it was."

"Oh dear, I might have accidentally thrown it away thinking it was an advertisement."

"Oh no, I can't get another one quickly, there is a limit to how often you can apply for one. After the last one went missing too I can't get another for at least 6 months."

"Oh, I am very sorry father."

"It is okay my dear you didn't know."

While Soun and Genma cried over their misfortune Kasumi winked at Akane and Ranma. Nabiki was gapping at her sister as she slowly realized how long Kasumi had been aiding Akane. Meanwhile Akane and Ranma were having a very hard time not laughing.

Later that evening Ranma knocked on Akane's door and quietly entered when he heard her say to come in. "Hey."

"Hey yourself."

Her room looked like a battleground. "What happened in here?" When she didn't answer he picked up a few things off the floor. Letters from Ryoga and the souvenirs that he had brought her from the various place he went were crumbled and discarded on the floor. Not that he ever went to those places on purpose and was often wrong about where he was writing from, Ranma never realized that she kept them all. He meant more to her than he knew. A picture of him with the rest of the group had him crossed out. "You know I am not sure this is all a good idea."

"I am back to being mad at him."

"You kept everything?"

She calmly got up and took a box down from the shelf and handed it to Ranma. He gently lifted the lid and looked inside. There was a dried rose, a stuff animal, cards, tickets to the circus along with other ticket stubs he wasn't sure where from, a flyer from the hotel everyone went to, a picture of him, a copy of the flyer he had made for the dojo, the picture of Akane falling off the balance beam and many more small items.

He was amazed at how long she had been keeping things he had given her or things they did together. One thing was missing and he was curious why it wasn't there. "Where is the music box?"

She opened her top desk drawer and it was sitting right in front. "I didn't like having to get the box down to listen to it." She turned the little key and let it play.

Ranma carefully set the box down and pulled her to him. "The scarf you made me is in my backpack."

"If our fathers force us to marry it won't be terrible."

"No, but it won't be right either." He picked her up and kissed her gently. "It would be nice if neither of us had to be knocked out."

"Will you help me clean all this up?"

"Yeah no problem."

They threw away the letters and most of the souvenirs, Akane cried again but this time he knew what to do.

Ranma fell asleep quickly after lying down but a few hours later he was wide awake. He had no idea what woke him up, he seemed to be fine and he didn't remember any nightmares. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

He crept down the hall and listened at Akane's door. He heard her talking in her sleep. He was walking away when he heard her cry out as if in pain. He bolted through the door looking for dangers.

She was still asleep and was thrashing about in her bed. He carefully dodged flailing arms and legs to get to her. "Akane! Wake up, you are having a bad dream."

Slowly he was able to wake her. She sat up and looked at him confused. "Ranma did I lose?"

"No, you were dreaming. You cried out in pain."

"I was fighting her in my dream and I kept missing her and she was always able to hit me."

"It is not going to be like that tomorrow. You have trained hard and you are ready to take her on. You told me that night in the dojo that you didn't want to lose me either. You can't lose this fight."

"You wouldn't really date her or anything."

"Hell no but she would certainly try, probably even harder than before. But I am your idiot." He sat down on the bed beside her.

She climbed out from the covers and sat on his lap facing him with her knees on either side of his hips. "Yes you are." She kissed him but this time instead of putting her arms around his neck she traced the massage pattern down his arms. When he groaned she felt bolder and followed the pattern along his chest. She felt the same buzzing sensation from this morning but all through her body. When she stopped kissing him the buzzing stopped and was replaced by a warm sensation. She tried it again and the same thing happened. She felt amazing and a little cocky.

"Wow, Akane, what are you doing?"

"Just what Dr. Tofu mentioned about being able to do it to your chest too. It feels better than before."

"I am so relaxed, I feel calm and centered."

"I feel energetic, like I could take on the world."

"Oh god do it again."

She started on his arms again but the buzzing sensation didn't come, just the warm sensation. As soon as he leaned in for a kiss the buzzing started. When she started on his shoulders and chest he rubbed his hands along her legs and up to her hips. He gripped her hips tightly as she followed her hands with her mouth until his undershirt was in the way. She continued the massage down his abdomen while her mouth returned to his.

When they had made out earlier it didn't feel like this. The massage was activating the chi flows that messed with and kissing her was heightening all the sensation. He shifted her back along his legs a bit before it got embarrassing. He heard her whimper and nearly died on the spot. She tried to wiggle closer but he held her firm. He had no idea how she would react to evidence of exactly how she was affecting him. When she seemed to be staying in place he moved to kissing her neck near her ear, he knew she really liked that, while at the same time he slide his hands up to her waist. His hands were under her pajama top and gently rubbed the smooth skin he encountered at the top of her waist band. He pulled back to look at her when he heard a sharp intake of breath but continued to rub her soft skin.

She put her forehead against his and left it there for a few minutes while he continued his tentative exploration of her skin. He was careful to stay away from her chest but he touched her stomach her sides and her back. It made her feel desirable. She wasn't ready for more but hated to stop him. "Ranma, we should probably stop before we go too far."

He looked away from her embarrassed, "Did I do something wrong?"

"No everything felt really good, too good. I know I am not ready for what might come next."

When he looked back at her she was smiling and had a rather content look on her face. "Okay, I think you are right."

"Ranma are you going to let me go?"

"Not for a couple more minutes."

She watched him take several deep breaths before she figured out that he was trying to calm himself down. Without looking away from his face, she stood up and sat back on her bed pulling the covers over her legs. She then tugged him towards her and moved the covers back on one side of the bed. "Ranma will you stay for a while and chase away the nightmares and the thoughts of P-chan, I mean Ryoga, being here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I would have never invited Ryoga to sleep in my bed, but I am inviting you."

He climbed in and she settled against him with his arm around her and slept against his chest. She barely moved, she didn't kick him or hit him. Before he fell asleep he heard her whisper his name and smiled. She was having a good dream about him. He was smiling as he fell asleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer - **I do not own Ranma 1/2 nor do I profit from this story.

**AN**: Story is almost done. One more chapter after this one. Thank you once again for all who have reviewed and to all those who have followed and read my story. This was a fun experience. I have started a sequel and with the final chapter of this story I will have a title ready to go for it and a first chapter posted sometime next week. I hope you will join me again.

Chapter 15 – Ranma's Chi

The next morning Ranma sneaked back to the guest room as quietly as he could.

"Ranma?"

He jumped at the sound of his name even though it had been whispered and spun around to see Kasumi coming up the stairs.

"I um, was well just checking on Akane."

"You don't have to lie to me Ranma."

"Sorry, nothing happened, she just had a bad dream."

Kasumi watched him return to his room and decided it might be a good time to have a little chat with Akane. She knocked on Akane's door waited to be allowed in.

"Kasumi? Is everything ok?"

"I saw Ranma."

"Oh" She blushed profusely and stared at her carpet. "We didn't do anything like that. He said he heard me cry out in my sleep like I was in pain and woke me up. I asked him to stay in here."

"Akane, you will come to me if you need anything right?"

"Um… what do you mean?"

"You know what I mean young lady. If you can't talk to me you talk to . You and Ranma don't want to get married yet and that is fine but if you get pregnant I will support daddy in forcing you to marry." She tapped her little sister lightly on her forehead.

Akane was shocked by her sister's words. "Kasumi! We really aren't doing that."

"But you might and as much as I don't want you to, it is your decision. All I can say is please wait until you decide to get married." She worried that she had been too harsh and hugged her embarrassed sister.

"Um… okay. I'm sorry to worry you, what you think means a lot to me, I don't want to disappoint you."

"Oh Akane, it is because I love you that I wanted to talk to you before I thought anything had actually happened. I trust you and Ranma but you are teenagers, I just want you to be careful."

"We will be, I promise."

"Good, breakfast will be ready soon." She hugged her sister again and went to finish putting their lunches together.

Akane felt guilty for worrying her sister but she had woken up feeling energized and ready to take on Kodachi. She knew she couldn't lose. She dressed and went downstairs, picked up her breakfast and ate quickly. Ranma came down to join her and grabbed his bowl, enjoying his breakfast as well. "Hey Akane, you must be really hungry today."

"What?"

"Um nothing."

He watched her finish twice as fast as him and raised his eyebrows. _What the hell is going on?_

They took off at a run for school and Ranma hopped on the fence as always. A few seconds later he nearly fell off the fence when Akane jumped up there with him. "What are you doing?"

"I just felt like I could do it. This isn't that hard."

Ranma frowned trying to figure out how the hell she could do that. He knew the training they had been doing would make her balance better but this was crazy. They both jumped down together close to the school and ran onto the school grounds.

Kuno was of course waiting. "Ranma Saotome, I will not tolerate you to defile Akane Tendo, foul cretin. I, Tatewaki Kuno, Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, shall defend her honor."

"Oh brother." Akane moved to face him. "Kuno, I am not going to let you speak to Ranma that way."

"Wait Akane, I don't need you to deal with this jerk."

"Shut up Ranma, I'm tired of his hot air." Akane jumped high and landed on Kuno's sword, "Kuno, I am not going to date you, I was never going to date you and you need to leave us alone."

She kicked out at his face and flipped backward off the sword to land on her feet gracefully. Kuno was on his back stunned and unmoving but conscious. Still not feeling satisfied she walked over to the prone Kuno and yanked his wooden sword away from him, hitting him over the head with it. Kuno's eyes rolled back into his head. Akane picked up her backpack and continued into the school.

Ranma stared after her, he was starting to worry about the behavior changes she was exhibiting today. "Akane are you feeling okay?"

"I feel great. Like I can take on the world."

"But what did you do to Kuno out there?"

"What do you mean? One of us hits or kicks him almost every day."

"You were, I don't know, unusually hard on him today."

"Oh come on Ranma, you are just upset you didn't get to hit him."

They got to class to find themselves surrounded by their classmates. Questions were being thrown at them from every direction. They became separated as their friends pulled at them.

Hiroshi and Daisuke demanded to know why he hadn't told them. "I didn't TELL anyone." That didn't satisfy them, Ranma just wanted to find a place to hide.

Akane was having similar thoughts as her friends asked details about how she had fallen in love with Ranma when everyone thought she hated him. Were they going to get married soon? "NO" Akane was going to kill Nabiki later after school.

The teacher entered the room and made everyone sit in their seats. The couple finally got a chance to breathe, both wanting to somehow disappear.

Lunch was nearly as bad. Eventually their group of friends realized that they weren't going to get many answers and backed off. "Someday we are going to get you to tell us the whole story." Yuka threaten Akane while Sayuri and the others nodded their agreement.

"Maybe someday but for now I just want to focus on the fight against Kodachi."

"So you really think you can beat her?" Hiroshi wanted to know. He had placed a bet through Nabiki in favor of Akane finishing the psychotic gymnast off quickly.

"Absolutely. She doesn't stand a chance."

"Your sister is taking bets on how long it will take you to finish her." Daisuke pointed out.

"Nabiki needs to mind her own business." It was Ranma who answered. The constant comments and questions were making him irritated. He was facing the entrance to the grounds and saw Ukyo leaving for her shop. Guilt settled over him, he knew she had to have seen the pictures yesterday. He was a little surprised that she didn't come over to the house and demand an explanation or worse cause trouble. She was probably really mad at him and he hated that; she was his friend and he should have talked to her about Akane.

"Did you skip school yesterday to train?" One of their friends asked pulling Ranma out of his thoughts.

It seemed like as good of an excuse as any so both Akane and Ranma nodded.

"Wow you really want to win this Akane."

"Of course I do. I can't let myself lose to a demented girl like Kodachi."

"Do you really think she will leave Ranma alone after you win?"

"Probably not. She is nuts remember." Akane spoke between mouthfuls.

"Yeah, she didn't last time and that ended up being me fighting for myself." Ranma frowned at the ground. "Akane you want the rest of my lunch? I think Kasumi packed me too much food."

The group stared in stunned silence as Akane took Ranma's portion and finished it. "What?" Akane looked at her friends' confused faces.

"Ranma never shares his food and Akane since when do you eat that much?"

"Huh? I guess I am just hungry today." She finished off the rest of Ranma's lunch and cleaned up their boxes.

Ranma stood up and asked Akane to come with him. He heard the others whisper as they walked away, something about needing alone time. He did need alone time with her but not for the reasons they were thinking. Once they were somewhere that no one could overhear them Ranma touched her arm and felt the familiar warm sensation.

"What is it Ranma?"

"I think that maybe, um well, the things we …." He could feel himself blushing, "you know, did last night, might have affected you."

"Of course it affected me. It affected you too." She thumped him in the chest and smirked at him.

"You don't understand… I think you are being more like me today." He really hoped she would believe him and not accuse him of trying to make excuses for her sudden improvement.

Now she was confused. "What do you mean?"

"You are moving more, eating faster and eating more, you have better balance and faster reflexes. When we were… you know… I felt more relaxed but you said you felt more energized." He took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes at her and poked her in the nose, "And frankly you are downright cocky today."

Akane was going to argue but what he was saying was making sense. She did feel really energetic while he was acting calmer. "Do you think it is because of the chi flows?"

"Yeah, I am not sure Dr. Tofu meant for us to be making out while you did that." Now it was his turn to smirk at her.

"Should we go see him?"

"It doesn't seem to be causing major problems. If some of my chi flowed into you that means you will last even longer in the fight against Kodachi without getting tired."

"So you are telling me this is a portion of what you feel all the time?"

Ranma laughed, "Yeah, I really hate school because I would rather be moving and sitting still is terrible. I usually fall asleep because it is easier than trying to pay attention."

"I took amazing notes today, I was able to keep up and write everything down."

"Good, you can take notes for me." He laughed and dodged her punch. "Just be careful today in the fight, if you really have some of my chi your movements are going to be faster than you are used to."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah I do, something has been a little bit different about you today and it is the only thing that makes sense. We also don't know how long it will last." Ranma looked thoughtful, "You know it is too bad I didn't teach you a chi blast. We will have to consider that in the future."

Akane bounced on the balls of her feet. "Really? You would teach me that?"

"One thing at a time tiger," They could hear the end of lunch bell ringing, "Well class time again."

Ranma and Akane walked back into the school and parted for their different classes. Ranma was nearly asleep listening to the teacher read a poem when the fire alarm went off. The class all started talking immediately and moving to exit the building. Ranma scanned the halls for Akane, remembering she was in cooking class, he started to worry that the fire had started there. Outside students were gossiping about what could have set off the alarm when Akane and her classmates came out of the building. Ranma could see she was covered in what looked like soot. When he ran over to see if she was hurt he could smell smoke on her. "What happened? Did you set fire to the kitchen?"

She was seething at his comment.

"Oh my god… you did?"

She didn't respond, her battle aura ignited but he was laughing too hard and ignored it.

"Guess the extra energy didn't help your cooking." He was holding his sides from laughing so hard. Even after she punched him across the yard and into the pool, the red-head climbed out and laughed some more.

Hiroshi got to her first, "You probably shouldn't have laughed at her in front of everyone."

"Oh god I couldn't help myself. She is so terrible in the kitchen. Get me come hot water will ya, I need to go dry off my clothes."

Hiroshi chuckled and went in search of some hot water for his friend. He idly wondered if the couple kissed like they did in the pictures he bought when Ranma was a girl. He was going to have to ask him or maybe her sometime. Thought made him smile knowing how embarrassed Ranma would be at the question.

The students were eventually allowed back in the building and Akane was sent to the girl's locker room to get cleaned up. Once Ranma was dry and male again, he sneaked off the school grounds and made his way to Dr. Tofu's office.

"Hello Dr. Tofu?" Ranma really hoped the doctor wasn't busy with another patient right now, he didn't have much time.

The doctor came out into the waiting room surprised to see Ranma standing there. He had a bruise forming on his jaw. "It is the middle of the school day did you come to get patched up?"

"Oh this isn't that bad. I came to ask you a question."

"Sure, sit down and I will tend to the bruise while we talk. How did you get this?"

"Akane punched me."

"I thought you two were getting along much better these days."

"We are, I laughed at her when I found out she set fire to the Home Ec kitchen today. So I pretty much deserved this."

Dr. Tofu laughed, "I guess so."

"I came to ask if there was anything funny that could happen if Akane did that massage stuff."

"Funny?"

"Yeah, she kinda massaged um… well… my uh chest."

"Oh that, it would make you feel a little calmer than if only your back was massaged but I don't know about any funny."

"Well you see what if I wasn't lying down?"

"If you were seated it really wouldn't make much of a difference, it actually might make it a little less effective since your muscle wouldn't be able to relax as much."

"What if we were doing something else too?"

"What else were you doing Ranma, you need to be frank with me or I can't answer your questions."

"Uh she was sitting on my lap and we were making out, then she started to massage me."

"Oh… OH!"

"What?"

"The massage directs your chi flow and strong emotions can also affect the flow. With both together I imagine she accidentally caused some of your chi to flow into her."

"That is what I guessed; today she was acting a bit like me." He describe the small changes in her behavior and abilities.

"It doesn't sound dangerous at all and it will wear off unless you continue to do what you did last night. If you need to cause the chi to flow back out of her sooner you would need to do to her what she did to you."

Ranma blushed but had a smirk on his face. The thought of doing that to her was very appealing. He thanked the doctor and ran back to school.

He was almost there when he heard a bike bell ringing. He pivoted and found Shampoo cycling toward him. "Hello husband, you want some special Ramen made just for you?"

"No thanks"

"Why you no want ramen?"

"I haven't forgiven you for slapping Akane."

"Silly girl pull Shampoo's hair."

Ranma shrugged. "I gotta get back to school."

"Silly girl really fight crazy gymnast today?"

"Yes A-Kan-e is really dueling Kodachi today."

"I know silly girl's name, I no care use it. Now you eat Ramen."

"No, I need to get back to my last class. Besides, what did you do to the Ramen? Anything like the mushrooms that were on Ukyo's food?"

"You know spatula girl and I try to break love potion on silly girl and you?"

"There is no love potion on Akane and me."

"How you know?"

"Because I have eaten the love mushrooms before and I know how that feels, if we had eaten those we would have agreed to be married by now. You have tried various love potions and other tricks on me. I am just surprised you got Ukyo to go along with your plan." Ranma turned away from her and started to walk toward the school again.

"It must be spell or potion or something. A man would never choose plain old ugly Akane over strong beautiful woman like Shampoo."

"Shampoo you just don't get it. Akane has never tried to trick me into marrying her, she has never bribed me for a date, and she never rubbed herself all over me when I didn't want it. She is kind and most of all she doesn't care about my curse. All you do is use it to bribe me into going on dates and Ukyo would never truly accept it, she is well intention but all she talks about is how soon I can cure it. It is a part of who I am now. If it gets cured great, if not, I don't care. I am not eating your ramen because I don't know if I can trust you. And I don't want to hear you ever call Akane ugly again."

"But Ranma…" Shampoo had tears in eyes.

"No, stop, I am going to school now." He turned and walked back onto the school grounds and figured he would find a place to wait until the next class was ready to start. He wanted to be able to slip back in mostly unnoticed.

A short distance away Ranma heard a regular tapping sound and went to investigate. As he got closer he could tell it was a hammer hitting a nail and then he saw a familiar scrawny boy in his unusual white outfit complete with candles tucked into a headband. _One of these days he is going to set his hair on fire._ Ranma calmly and quietly walked up behind Gosunkugi.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"I am going to ruin Ranma Saotome's life with a curse." Gosunkugi was still focused on hammering the voodoo doll into the tree trunk in front of him.

"Will it work if he is already cursed?" Ranma was curious what kind of curse could be worse than the one he already had.

"I am going to make the gymnast girl win the fight today, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He boy was rubbing his palms together and still hadn't bothered to turn around. "Once she has Ranma then Akane will be free again."

Ranma could feel himself getting angry. "But that will mean that my fiancé will get hurt and I really don't like thinking of that." He reached out and picked his strange classmate up by his shirt collar. With his other hand he pulled the voodoo doll off the tree, crushing it and dropping it on the ground. Turning his face to Gosunkugi, "Akane is mine and no one else's. You wouldn't even have a chance with her."

The sickly looking boy lost what little color he had in his face. "I … I … I… well she wouldn't have been guaranteed to get hurt."

Ranma shook the boy and something fluttered out of his shirt. Catching it deftly he turned it over and saw it was one of the pictures of him and Akane from the day he had attacked Shampoo. Akane was still crying and they were kissing inside the gate to the Tendo property. The photograph was wrinkled and damaged. "I don't think you need to be keeping this." Ranma slipped it into his pocket and shook Gosunkugi again for good measure. "I better not catch you near Akane." He dropped his classmate and walked toward the school.

Ranma pulled the picture back out of his pocket and looked at it again as he walked back to class. He was irritated that a private moment between Akane and him had been sold but he couldn't help but smile anyway. _It really does have great lighting. She looks so beautiful._

Shampoo rode back to the cat café and fell crying into her grandmother's arm. "Why Ranma choose Akane? Why not Shampoo?"

"Oh dear granddaughter I was afraid this was coming soon. I tried to warn you but you wouldn't listen. His heart has finally spoken, it would be dishonorable to continue pursuing him."

"He say that Akane doesn't care about curse and that why he like her better. Shampoo no care about curse more than silly girl, Shampoo cursed too."

"Do you love his female form as much as his male form?"

"What you mean? Shampoo no have to love female form. Shampoo love male Ranma so when turn female Shampoo just turn back to male."

"Would you go on a date, hold hands or kiss his female side?"

"No way, Shampoo not like that."

"Neither is Ukyo but I have seen Akane with his female side, she truly doesn't see a difference between his male and female side. She simply doesn't care at all that he is cursed."

"Akane perverted?"

"Not at all, you are being stubborn, if you were truly in love with Ranma you would love all of him, not just his male side. The girl who could do that is the girl who won his heart."

The last class of the day was finally over. Akane went to change into her gi and Ranma waited outside the girl's locker room. He was worried that he would have trouble watching the duel; if he interfered Akane would be really mad at him. _She can do this. _If somehow she lost Kodachi really would be a worse curse than the one he already had.

Ukyo saw him standing there and approached him. "Hey Ranma honey. You think Akane can win this?"

"Yes" He didn't bother looking at her. He had defended her when Akane suspected her of tampering with his food the other day. But after his conversation with Shampoo he wonder if Ukyo had ever done anything else. She usually just tried to pair with him in contests or other small things.

"Are you okay honey?"

"Shampoo and you tried to feed Akane and me the antidote mushrooms."

She knew he wasn't asking her, he had found out somehow. "We thought you were behaving oddly."

"You thought because Akane and I weren't arguing as much that we were under some sort of spell, right?"

"Well yeah, you guys fight all the time so when you stopped it was weird."

"I guess I can understand that since you don't know what I went through in Jusenkyo, so it wouldn't make sense to you. Shampoo wasn't even there for all of it."

"Um… Mousse told us."

"Before you gave us the mushrooms?"

"Yeah, I am really sorry. After the story I wasn't sure any more about you guys being under a spell but the mushroom guide told me that the mushroom would only work if you were under the effects of another mushroom and if you weren't it would have no effect. I wouldn't have done it if I thought it would hurt you."

"It didn't do anything did it?"

"No"

"Are you still going to try and do something to break us up?"

"So you are really together? I thought maybe Nabiki found a way to fake those photos, or at least that is what I really wanted to believe."

"Uc-chan, you are my best friend. I don't want to hurt you, but it was Akane before you even came to town. I just hadn't admitted it to myself yet. It was easier to deny it because I hated that we were forced into an engagement at 16."

"What if you were no longer forced to marry Akane? You could live with me and we could run my restaurant. I am sure you would learn to make Okonomiyaki quickly. You hate school so you could even stop going if you wanted to. If we created a successful line of restaurants and stands then it wouldn't matter if you finished high school."

"Really? You honestly think that is what I would want? I want to continue improving my martial arts; that is all I have wanted for as long as I can remember. I hate that my dad cheated your dad and he stole from you. I don't want you to stop being my friend but I will understand if you hate me."

"Oh honey, I want to hate you, but I don't think I can. Just promise me if you change your mind and I am still available you will give me a chance."

Ranma smiled and held out his hand. "I promise, but you have to promise not to do anything to hurt Akane."

"I promise. I am not like Shampoo. If Akane hadn't been the girl you always protected I probably would have liked to be close friends with her." _If I find a way to change his mind, that will be fair._ The thought made her feel a little better.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't your shop be open?"

"I closed it and brought my cart, I'll probably do better business here anyway. I should get out to the field and get set up and see what I can sell before the fight. If Kodachi wins I make no promises not to hurt her when she tries to date you."

Ranma smiled broadly, "I won't stop you."

Akane walked out to see Ranma and Ukyo talking. Ranma smiled at her but Ukyo looked sad even though she tried to smile.

"Ready to go tomboy?"

"Idiot," Akane beamed at him, "Of course I am ready. She is toast."


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer - **I still do not own Ranma 1/2.

**Thank you** **for reading my first story. **

Chapter 16 – The duel

It looked like the entire student body as well as her oldest sister, her father and uncle Genma had shown up to watch the fight. Akane faced Kodachi, who was cackling on the other side of the field.

"All you need to do is give up on Ranma darling and I will not hurt you."

"Let's just get this over with." Akane moved into her stance and waited for her opponent to make the first move. As predicted she started with her ribbon. Akane dodge the first few attacks, steadily making small advances. When she thought she could get the ribbon away she blocked the attack and pulled hard against the ribbon.

Kodachi was expecting another dodge so when the ribbon flew out of her hand she was quite surprised. "Ho Ho Ho Ho… I have more than just that ribbon you know. Don't think you have an advantage now."

Akane had taken advantage of the borrowed chi and pull the ribbon with enough force to bring it back to herself and caught the baton portion. Now she had something to hit Kodachi back with even at a range. "I don't need this to defeat you." She had managed to make sure the ribbon mostly hit her gi sleeve and not her skin so that the sharp edges didn't cut her.

"You should give up now before I ruin what limited feminine features you possess." Kodachi flipped gracefully toward Akane bringing out her hoop at the last second.

Akane sent the ribbon flying out and was able to send the hoop off course but lost the tool in the process, she was back to working on advancing and getting close enough for a solid hit.

"Oh you think you are clever, it is no matter."

One of Kodachi's teammates threw a mallet to her and with a wild gleam in her eye she charged. This Akane could easily deal with. She had long been trained to disarm sword and club attacks by her father who favored such weapons. Akane shifted very fast to the left and was momentarily disoriented. _Woah, I see what Ranma meant._

Ranma saw it happen too, she had moved faster than she needed to. He cringed as the mallet came around towards her head. He watched Akane adjust and jump backwards, missing getting hit by only centimeters. Once she was clear of the mallet he could breathe again; it was taking all of his will power not to enter the field. The familiar sensations of his fast beating heart and dry mouth were back but he was keeping himself together. _She can do this. _

This time when her opponent charged again she purposefully moved faster and kicked up into the weapon sending it flying away from the field. It landed behind a group of students who had to dive away from the incoming object which imbedded itself into the ground.

"Aren't you tired of chasing a man who isn't interested in you?"

"Ranma darling and I are destined to be together. He is my knight in shining armor and I, his beautiful princess."

Akane rolled her eyes and started advancing on Kodachi. She watched her and was able to see clearly when the girl went for her next item. The ball came out, Kodachi threw it at Akane's face then jumped and flipped away from the center of the field. Akane knew it was probably explosive. She tried to flip back but realized she wasn't getting away from it. Instead when she was right side up again put her hands up like a setter in volleyball and bent her elbows as the ball contacted her hands and then sent it flying back in the direction Kodachi had ran.

A heart attack wasn't a painful enough way to describe how Ranma felt when he saw her hands go up. When she improvised and sent the ball back he was floored. That was exactly the kind of thing that the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts was based on, using absolutely anything as a martial arts technique. He grinned broadly and was able to relax just a little. Glancing at Kodachi he could tell she was starting to look worried.

The ball exploded, sending Kodachi flying backwards several meters. Akane hadn't stopped after the ball exploded she attacked the girl through the dust that had been sent up into the air. Giving her an element of surprise. She used her fists to keep the gymnast on the defensive. Kodachi manage to pull out her clubs to parry the attacks, Akane didn't have something to throw at her wrists so she used her legs and swung her right leg up and around in a roundhouse kick. She took a few hits herself while doing that but she didn't lose her balance at all. She took advantage of her opponent's shock and spun using her other leg to topple her. Kodachi hit the ground hard got up glaring at Akane.

"Are you done yet or do you want some more punishment?"

"Foul child. I am not done yet."

Kodachi threw a few tiny balls at the ground that produced a cloud when they hit. Akane held her breathe and jump as far back as she could. She couldn't see where Kodachi was standing. She scanned constantly for her. As the cloud was blow toward the south end of the field, Akane saw several students collapse and appeared to be asleep. From behind her she was hit hard by a rod; falling forward she barely managed to catch herself with her hands.

From the sidelines Ranma was being restrained by his friends, including Ukyo, who was probably the one most able to keep him in place. "You aren't supposed to go out there." His throat was tight and his heart was beating wildly. He watched Akane struggle to stand.

"GET UP TOMBOY AND GET BACK IN THAT FIGHT."

Akane felt her battle aura burn hotter, "IDIOT, I AM NOT DONE YET," she sensed something flying at her. She shoved back and avoided being hit by a thrown club. Kodachi had manage to get to where her clubs had dropped while she was down. Akane faced her and picked up the club that had missed her head. Several more clubs were heading her direction, she didn't bother dodging them instead she swung her club and tried to redirect them back at their owner. They were a little different than the rocks but once she got used to how the first couple flew, she was able to hit them right at Kodachi. One after another found their mark, Kodachi was running out of clubs and backing away from the very fierce Akane. Once she was close enough she discarded the club and moved fast around Kodachi, throwing punch after punch. Finally she nailed her with an incredibly strong kick and sent her flying out of the school yard. She stood there and watched the wicked girl sail away wondering where she might land. _I hope she lands in something really messy._

Cheers erupted from all the students. She could hear her father and Genma yelling loudly. Her eyes found Ranma's in the crowd, she watched him stand up and walk to her. He was grinning at her and she grinned back. When he got to her a hush fell over the crowd.

He looked down at her, "I have an idea. How much do you trust me?"

She thought carefully and knew sometimes Ranma's ideas didn't always work out but in the end he always got what he wanted. "I trust you enough for whatever hair-brained scheme you are thinking about."

He took her face in his hands and she stared wide-eyed at him as he brought his lips to hers. He was kissing her… in front of everyone. _ What the hell kind of idea is this?_ The students all started cheering again louder than before.

They could both sense their fathers running towards them. He pulled apart from her but kept his face near hers. "7 or 9?"

"What?" It only took her a second to understand, "9 I like 9."

They separated and waited until their fathers were close enough before moving in synchrony against the two men. Neither of the overbearing patriarchs knew what hit them. As they lay on the ground Ranma stood over them with Akane.

"WE WILL GET MARRIED, IF … I… ASK HER."

"AND IF… I… SAY YES."

"UNTIL THEN STAY OUT OF IT."

**AN: **The title of the sequel is going to be The Warrior's Scroll. I will attempt to address the all important questions of "What constitutes hot water?"... "When is Ranma's birthday?"... "Is Nabiki cold-hearted or can she warm?"... oh yeah and there is this pesky over arc about a scroll of a perfect warrior (name of this thing is subject to change). The first chapter will be up by tomorrow, I have someone reading over it for me.


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